Question: FireWire or USB 2.0, which is
faster?
Answer: FireWire is faster than USB 2.0.
Question: Hold on...USB 2.0 is a 480 Mbps interface and FireWire is a
400 Mbps interface, how can FireWire be faster? Answer: Raw throughput rating numbers alone
don't tell the whole story, as explained below.
The throughput numbers would lead you to believe that USB 2.0 provides
better performance. But, differences in the architecture of the two
interfaces have a huge impact on the actual sustained "real world"
throughput. And for those seeking high-performance, sustained throughput
is what it's all about (reading and writing files to an external hard drive for
example).
Architecture - FireWire vs. USB 2.0
FireWire, built from the ground up for speed, uses a
"Peer-to-Peer" architecture in which the peripherals are intelligent
and can negotiate bus conflicts to determine which device can best control a
data transfer
USB 2.0 uses a "Master-Slave" architecture in which
the computer handles all arbitration functions and dictates data flow to, from
and between the attached peripherals (adding additional system overhead and
resulting in slower, less-efficient data flow control)
Performance Comparison - FireWire vs. USB 2.0
Read and write tests to the same IDE hard drive connected using FireWire and
then USB 2.0 show:
Read Test:
5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 33% faster than USB 2.0
160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 70% faster than USB 2.0
Write Test:
5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 16% faster than USB 2.0
160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 48% faster than USB 2.0
FireWire - Still the Performance King!
As the performance comparison shown above confirms, FireWire remains the
performance leader. And is the best choice for DV camcorders, digital audio and video
devices, external hard drives, high-performance DVD burners and any other device that demands
continuous high performance throughput.
