The Historic Battle of 1394

Electronic News, July 23, 2001 by Steven Fyffe

Agere abandons USB 2.0 for 1394b

The escalating conflict between the IEEE 1394 and USB standards is about more than just technology--it's about ideology.

"It's like Mac vs. PC," said Dan Harmon, connectivity peripherals marketing manager at Texas Instruments Inc. And the growing discord carries all the historic undertones of Apple's holier-than-thou war against the IBM and Wintel (Microsoft and Intel)-led PC mainstream.

USB has a master-to-slave architecture where the PC runs the show and the peripheral devices obey. In contrast, IEEE 1394--FireWire to Apple and i.Link to Sony--takes a peer-to-peer approach, where more intelligent peripherals negotiate to decide which device is most capable of controlling the bus.

The emerging battleground is the digital home of the future.

"It's really about the bigger issue of how the architecture of a home environment is set up," said Bob Merritt, director of emerging markets at Semico Research Corp., Scottsdale, Ariz. "That is the battleground.

"USB 2.0 basically assumes there is a PC in the middle of the network that takes care of all the arbitration functions. The group that likes the PC structure, such as Intel and Microsoft, prefers the philosophical idea of having a PC in the middle of the network because that's a critical spot.

"(IEEE) 1394 does not require a PC in the middle to arbitrate bus conflicts. The group that is not PC-oriented is coming from the video and home entertainment area, such as Sony, and they like the idea that they don't have to deal with a PC, and they like the idea of peer to peer.

"In the home of the future, you will have a data network within a house. The question is whether the devices that you attach to are going to report to a PC... or whether you will be able to attach things at random, and the bus structure will be sophisticated enough to handle new devices coming onto the bus without having a hierarchical structure."

The Historical Perspective

In the beginning, the two standards were supposed to peacefully coexist at separate ends of the bit-speed spectrum, with USB handling low-bit-rate devices, such as keyboards, and 1394 taking care of high-bandwidth consumer devices, such as digital camcorders. But now those two areas are starting to overlap.

The USB 2.0 specification takes USB from l2Mbits/sec. up to 480Mbits/sec., which is actually faster than current 1394 products that run at around 400Mbits/sec. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is still working on the next-generation 1394b specification that promises to speed the technology up to 3.2Gbits/sec. But even that won't eliminate the overlap with USB 2.0.

As more common ground appears, the battle lines are becoming clearer. The USB camp suffered a public defection last week when Allentown, Pa.-based Agere Systems Inc. announced it was dropping plans to release two USB 2.0 chips and focussing instead on speeding its 1394b products to market. But Agere's decision was not a vote of no-confidence in the future of USB, said Sujal Shah, marketing director for the computer I/O business unit at Agere (nyse: AGR/A).

"Resources are limited and we can't necessarily invest in every technology," Shah said. "I don't think this was a statement that we believe one of the technologies is going to win out over the other. We are looking at the areas where Agere needs to grow and how that plays into our strategy."

Others companies, such as Dallas-based TI, are hedging their bets.

"We believe you should build both and let the market decide what the mix is versus choosing one over the other," said TI's Harmon. "There will be 1394 and there will be USB coexisting on the PC platforms and consumer electronics platforms, and the need for peripherals to support both those standards. I was very surprised with (Agere's) announcement."

The increased competitive overlap between the two technologies is mirrored within TI (nyse: TXN). Internal divisions that used to deal separately with USB and 1394 were recently merged, Harmon said.

"Initially we had multiple people calling on the same customers promoting competing technologies," he said. "What we as department leadership realized was that it did not make good sense for supporting our customers, so we reorganized along vertical equipment lines.

"From a technological standpoint USB and 1394 are going to compete. Storage is a prime example. You are going to go to your electronics store of choice and sitting on the shelf right next to each other will be a 1394 external hard drive and a USB external hard drive.

"Storage is probably the largest gray area. Next, would-be scanners, and printers might also fall into that area."

More set-top box makers are considering incorporating 1394 alongside USB, said Vahe Akay, vice president of marketing at Santa Clara, Calif.-based Tvia Inc.

"The cost of 1394, whether it is the licenses or royalties or device development, has come down significantly," Akay said. "Most of the people in the set-top box and Internet appliance world today are using USB, but in the next 12 months, there will be more of the same OEMs incorporating 1394 at the same time, or in the same box as USB."