Firewire gets faster but not fast enough

USB may have won the battle against Firewire, but that doesn't mean a few enthusiasts still aren't keeping hope alive for the flagging standard. This week in China, a company called Symwave demonstrated what it calls Firewire S160, a standard that moves data at a speedy 1.6Gbps while maintaining backward compatibility with Firewire 400 and 800. While that's all well and good, you'll remember that USB 3.0 boasts speeds of up to 4.8Gbps and could start showing up in devices within the next year. Unless S160 beats USB 3.0 to the market, it could prove to be a tough sell. In other Firewire news, the standard hit a major milestone this week, as the 1394 Trade Association announced that there now are more than one billion Firewire ports in existence. Congratulations, Firewire!

For more on Firewire S160:
- see this PC World article