Until now, internal performance advancements have largely fueled the rapid growth of the personal computer market. Faster processors, more memory and better graphics have helped create an increasingly easy -to-use, visually appealing PC environment. Despite these performance improvements, many of the peripheral connections are made using the same interface technologies of older machines and are starting to limit performance and growth for future applications.
The IEEE 1394-1995 High-Performance Serial Bus standard promises to radically alter this model by giving a breadth of end products, including peripherals, consumer electronics and telecom products a flexible, cost-effective and universal way to transfer data. For consumers, this is the fundamental capability that will redefine the role for their PC-from a stand-alone appliance to the hub of a seamless digital home environment populated with rich, interactive multimedia applications. For manufacturers, 1394 will build a bridge between the consumer and computer markets, creating fully interoperable computers, computer peripherals, consumer electronics and networking tools. As the backbone of this new multimedia environment, 1394 integrated circuit (IC) solutions from Texas Instruments are enabling the creation of new markets and new products that will meet consumer demand in the coming interactive home environment.
Creating a new paradigm with 1394
The IEEE-approved 1394 standard was born primarily out of a need for flexible and cost-effective way to share real-time (isochronous) information among data-intensive applications like digital camcorders, digital VCRs and Digital Video Disks (DVD). As an all digital interface, 1394 was first used in digital cameras to replace existing analog transmission interfaces that significantly degrade the quality of the output picture.
Now, the standard is poised to create a new paradigm of interactivity as PC and high-performance peripheral and consumer electronics manufacturers rush to integrate 1394's extensive capabilities. Many digital applications, including camcorders, VCRs, DVDs, cameras, set-top boxes, stereos, high- definition TVs, high-quality printers adopted or will soon use 1394 as the high-performance highway to interoperability.
1394 - A new world of opportunities
The 1394 standard describes a serial bus driven by a simple yet advanced communications protocol, which is designed to provide low system cost and the data transfer rates necessary for a high-performance peripheral bus. As a multipurpose high-speed peripheral bus, the standard delivers some important benefits over the many different existing standard and proprietary interfaces it is designed to replace.
High-Bandwidth data transmission - With current support for 100-, 200-, and 400-Mbps transmission speeds, 1394 provides an ideal interconnect for multimedia applications with high data transfer requirements. TI is supporting enhancements to 1394 that will allow 1-, 2-, 4-, and 8-Gbps and beyond.
Real-time data transfers- Isochronous data transfers guarantee low latency delivery of time-critical data while minimizing the sizes of required data buffers. These characteristics are necessary for the new digital satellite, DVD, and television/audio systems now being developed.
Application - Improve Expandability
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