Apple's FireWire technology implements the IEEE 1394 High Performance Serial Bus. Fast, hot-pluggable, and flexible, the FireWire digital interface supports daisy-chaining and branching for true peer-to-peer communication.
Developers who are designing peripheral devices that connect to a Macintosh computer via FireWire will find this document useful.
This document contains the following articles:
“FireWire Concepts” provides a brief overview of Apple's implementation of FireWire and defines the key concepts you need to ensure that the FireWire interface in your device is compatible with Macintosh computers that support FireWire.
“FireWire Product-Specific Details” provides details specific to particular Macintosh computers.
For specific information about a particular Macintosh computer, see the product developer note for that computer in the Guides > Hardware & Drivers > Apple Hardware.
For a list of the standard units of measure and abbreviations used in this developer note, refer to the Hardware Developer Note Terms and Abbreviations.
Apple offers the following additional resources for FireWire:
FireWire Device Interface Guide provides background information and sample code for developing applications to communicate with or control FireWire devices and interfaces.
FireWire Audio User Library Framework Reference provides information about using USB device arbitration.
I/O Kit Framework Reference describes the FWAUserLib API, that provides access to FireWire audio devices by applications. The functions in this framework allow applications to create and manage audio and MIDI streams and plugs, audio engines, and audio devices.
The Device Drivers Downloads page on the Apple Developer Connection website offers the FireWire SDK that includes tools, installer packages, and example source projects for adding FireWire support to your product.
You can download the FireWire Reference Platform under an evaluation license to quickly add FireWire functionality to peripheral and consumer electronics products such as digital cameras, set-top boxes, televisions, and music systems.
The FireWire mailing list provides a discussion forum for FireWire development.
The following additional resources for FireWire may also prove helpful:
The 1394 Trade Association supports the development of computer and consumer electronics systems compatible with IEEE 1394 (FireWire). Their website provides members with resources for implementing FireWire support, including official specifications, licenses for use of the 1394 compliance logo, and discussion forums.
Last updated: 2008-04-28
