Cables Unlimited 9P/4P IEEE 1394B 6 ft MSC-5140-06 Merkblatt

                                                     

 

www.cablesunlimited.com

                                     800-609-7550                                                   

www.ziplinq.com

  

FIREWIRE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 

 

There are several types of cables available.

 

 

 

¾ 

. 

This cable supplies power to the FireWire bus and is most commonly used for 

connecting to devices such as FireWire Hard Drives, FireWire CD-RWs and other common 1394 
computer peripherals.

 

¾ 

6-pin to 4-pin cable. 

This cable does NOT supply power to the FireWire bus and is usually used to 

connect to DV Cameras or other self powered devices. 

¾ 

 Used to connect 4pin iLink devices (almost always video cameras) to other iLink 

devices or to computers (Sony and a few other Windows computers) using the 4pin iLink ports. 

 

¾ 

 This IEEE 1394b 9-pin to 9-pin cable connects an 800Mbps computer to other 

IEEE1394b compatible computers or devices. It has twisted pair construction and quad shielding to 
ensure optimum data transfer speed without any data loss. Additionally, it also supports plug and play 
and hot-swap features.   

¾ 

9-pin to 6-pin cable.

  Used to connect a standard FireWire device or computer to an 800Mbps 

connector. Example: connecting any legacy device (hard drives, DVD drives) to a new faster FireWire 
800 port on your Mac. 

¾   

9-pin to 4-pin cable.

  Used to connect an 800Mbps device or computer port to a 4-pin “iLink” 

connector, like those used on video cameras and some Windows computers. Example: Connecting your 
video recorder to a computer equipped with the new 800Mbps ports.        

•  Why are some FireWire cables 4-pin and others 6-pin? 

The 6-pin cable carries data and draws power from the FireWire bus. The 4-pin cable is used to carry data only, it does not 
draw power from the FireWire bus, most often seen in self-powered devices like digital video cameras. 

•  Why are some FireWire cables 9-pin?  

This is the new bi-lingual connector designed by Apple for the FireWire 800 (1394b) standard. 
800 devices have 9pin ports where 400 devices have 6-pin ports (and then there are iLink connectors with their own 4-pin 
connections). So depending on your computer and your FireWire device, there are a few possibilities. Of course you can get 
them all here, but with all these different connections and “beta” and “bilingual” cables, you might be still ask… 

•  What are beta and bilingual cables? Which connectors do I need? 

“Beta cables” are the true FireWire 800 cables, intended for connecting a 1394b device with a 1394b port on your personal 
computer. Both ends have a 9-pin connector, compliant with the 800 standard, designed to get all the speed of FireWire 800. 
“Bilingual cables” are those that have a 9-pin connector on one end, for an 800Mpbs device or port, and an “A” connector, 
either 6-pin or 4-pin, on the other. FireWire 800 is backwards compatible so if you have a FireWire 800 device but your 
computer is still FireWire 400, you can still plug and play, although you’ll need one of these special cables and you’ll miss out 
on some of the speed of FireWire 800.  

•  What is the maximum length a FireWire cable can be? 

The maximum cable length for connecting device to device is 4.5-meters. A 10 meter cable may be used in conjunction with a 
repeater when it is necessary to extend FireWire cables over long distances. You must however have a hub/repeater for every 
10 meters of FireWire cable used. This is necessary because as the signal travels through the wire it begins to weaken. This is 
known as signal degradation, a hub/repeater simply amplifies the signal, thus allowing it to travel further.