The File Transfer
Breakdown
It all began with a couple of questions
to me about why it took so long to down load
digital camera files to their individual
computers. I queried some of our vendors,
at pictureline, expecting to get the nickel
answer, but I received an answer filled with
more questions than answers.
When attempting to get a specific answer
about an individual computer system, I found
you practically have to give up your lifelong
medical history. The answer is based
on the computer platform involved, Mac or
PC. The operating system (OS) being
run on the computer, Windows 98, 2000, XP,
Mac OS 9.1 or better or Mac OS 10.x. What
is the age of the hardware platform? What
type of peripherals are you attempting to
use and what type of file transfer protocol
is involved?
The platform debate has been running on
since the infancy of personal computing. Mac
or PC; everyone has their favorite workhorse
of choice. Many people have both because
they each excel in their own way. To
the point of this investigation, all Mac’s
since 1998 have a FireWire (ieee 1934) connectors
(see figure 1) and most PC’s do not. All
Mac’s and almost every PC made since
the year 2000 has a USB connector (see figure
2). The difference of which file transfer
protocol you can utilize will depend on which
type of input connectors your computer has
built or added in.
The age or version of your computer operating
system will have a bearing on which of the
file transfer protocols it can read. Mac
computers running OS 9 or 10 will accept,
understand and run FireWire and USB protocols. With
the PC platform it is a different story,
because you will have to review the OS version
and its compatibility to handle FireWire. Most
all of the newer PC machines will handle
USB. On both platforms, however, you
may have to check to see if the OS and hardware
will support the new HiSpeed standard for
USB 2.0.
There are a number of different peripherals,
which will operate with either the FireWire
or USB protocol, such as some of the Epson
printers. Many other units will have
one style of connector or the other and will
only operate within one protocol. In
such cases most of the decisions are already
made for you. If your computer system
will handle the peripherals connector then
you can use it.
As long as you can make a physical connection
to your computer, why would you care which
protocol you use? It all comes down
to speed and we all know that time equals
money for most people. Witness the
rapid explosion of each years faster and
ever faster computer CPU’s, because
everyone wants something faster. For
the biggest part, the old serial and parallel
connectors and protocols have bit the dust
because they were simply too slow. Other
protocols, such as SCSI, are expiring because
of the technical difficulties of its use. Both
FireWire and USB are very simple to use as
plug and play technologies.
This whole thing became evident to me last
week. At a photo session I filled a
4GB microdrive card in three hours. Back
at the desk I plugged the card into a USB
card reader and proceeded to wait 68 minutes
for the complete data download. The
next day I promptly purchased from pictureline
a FireWire card reader and duplicated the
download as an experiment, which lasted scarcely
12 minutes. So how fast can we go? Take
a look at Table 1 for a list of operational
speeds.
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Table 1
Operational Speeds
Serial port: 115kbps to 1Mbps
Standard parallel port: 115kBps
(USB 1.0) USB: 185Kbps (old)
(USB 1.1) USB: 12Mbits/s
(1.5MBps)
(USB 2.0) HiSpeed USB:
480Mbits/s (50Mbps)
ECP/EPP parallel port: 3MBps
IDE: 3.3-16.7MBps
SCSI-1: 5MBps
SCSI-2 (Fast SCSI, Fast Narrow SCSI): 10MBps
Fast Wide SCSI (Wide SCSI): 20MBps
Ultra SCSI (SCSI-3, Fast-20, Ultra Narrow):
20MBps
UltraIDE: 33MBps
Wide Ultra SCSI (Fast Wide 20): 40MBps
Ultra2 SCSI: 40MBps
(FireWire) IEEE-1394: 100-400Mbps
(12.5-50MBps)
Wide Ultra2 SCSI: 80MBps
Ultra3 SCSI: 80MBps
Wide Ultra3 SCSI: 160MBps
FC-AL Fiber Channel: 100-400MBps
10Base-T: 10Mbps (1.25MBps)
100Base-T: 100Mbps (12.5MBps)
1000Base-T: 1000Mbps (125MBps)
__________________________________
I can already hear the wheels turning. I
see by this table that USB 2.0 is faster
than FireWire so why bother with it? This
will answer a few more questions about the
debate. See http://www.cwol.com/firewire/firewire-vs-usb.htm . In
sustained throughput FireWire is still faster,
mainly due to its original concept and architecture. Regardless
of the protocols involved, we the consumers
win. Faster download times are here
with easier plug and play technical requirements
involved.
Thanks for your questions to askRodger@pictureline.com,
I saved enough time on downloads to write
this article for the benefit of all of us
struggling with the same workflow problems. Keep
the questions coming. Thanks also to
Joel at Lexar for his timely information.
symbol
Top – 4-pin,
bottom – 6-pin FireWire connector
Figure 1
___________________________________________
symbol
USB connectors
Figure 2 
