MacSpeedZone's Article on Firewire-USB-SCSI Performance



Technology

Theoretical Maximum Throughput
Megabits

Theoretical Maximum Throughput
Megabytes

Used For

Apple Desktop Bus

0.01 Mbps or 10 Kbps

0.0013MBps

input devices like mice, keyboards, joysticks, etc

Serial Port

0.23 Mbps or 230 Kbps

0.029MBps

printers, telephony devices, modems, etc

USB at low data transfer rate

1.5 Mbps

0.19MBps

most devices

Geoport Port

2 Mbps

0.25MBps

Geoport modem

10Base-T

10 Mbps

1.25MBPS

Laser printers, network connections, etc

USB at high transfer rates

12 Mbps

1.5MBps

most devices

SCSI

40 Mbps

5MBps

hardrives, removable storage, scanners, etc

Fast SCSI

80 Mbps

10MBps

high performance drives

100Base-T

100 Mbps

12.5MBps

Laser printers, network connections, etc

high performance drives

SATA

150 Mbps

???

high performance drives

Ultra SCSI

160 Mbps

20MBps

SATA2

300 Mbps

???

high performance drives

Wide Ultra SCSI

320 Mbps

40MBps

high performance drives

Ultra2 SCSI

320 Mbps

40MBps

high performance drives

FireWire 400

400 Mbps

50MBps

hard drives, scanners, digital video

USB 2.0 (Intel)

480 Mbps

60MBps

Standard due in late 2000 or early 2001

Wide Ultra2 SCSI

640 Mbps

80MBps

high performance drives

FireWire 800

800 Mbps

100MBps

hard drives, scanners, digital video
Now available (3/21/00)

Ultra3 SCSI

1280 Mbps

160MBps

high performance drives

FireWire 1600

1600 Mbps

200MBps

hard drives, scanners, digital video
(Design spec up and running 3/21/00)

What is Firewire?

FireWire is a cross-platform implementation of the high-speed serial data bus -- defined by IEEE Standard 1394-1995 -- that can move large amounts of data between computers and peripheral devices. It features simplified cabling, hot swapping, and transfer speeds of up to 400 megabits per second. Major manufacturers of multimedia devices are already adopting the FireWire technology. FireWire speeds up the movement of multimedia data and large files and enables the connection of digital consumer products -- including digital camcorders, digital video tapes, digital video disks, set-top boxes, and music systems -- directly to a personal computer.