Both FireWire and USB are technologies used to connect devices to a computer and transport data quickly . FireWire is also know by the term IEEE 1394 High Performance Serial Bus , and USB stands for Universal Serial Bus . The main remainder between the two is that FireWire is made to handle more data than USB , particularly audio and visual information . For example , a 2.0 USB can handle a information transfer rate of 480 Mbps , whereas an 800 FireWire can take on 800 Mbps . However , a 2.0 USB can contend 127 devices while an 800 FireWire can only care up to 63 twist . Both exploit using the plug - and - run , blistering - pluggable technology , meaning you’re able to plug away a machine into your computer while the computer is on , and the computer will recognized it and start to communicate with it ( assuming the driver has already been installed ) .
Another full-grown difference between USB and FireWire is that USB networking is base on the server , whereas FireWire networking is directly compeer - to - peer . That mean so as to communicate with each other though a USB , two devices also have to be link up to a figurer . Meanwhile , a FireWire connection can be completed directly between the two devices without a need for a computer in the middle . The USB net topology is a hub , while FireWire electronic connection regional anatomy is a daisy chain .
The two technologies are still mainly the same , although FireWire costs a bit more than USB . That ’s why USB is used as the standard in most computers ' eminent - speed buses . Still , neither is prohibitively expensive and both allow legion devices to be plug into to computer well . Both allow fast transfer of data – although the pep pill difference has already been note above .
