firewire/ilink

[Jerome Meekings]

At 5:34am -0700 7/11/04, Gerhard Kuhn wrote:
>Sony sells both 4 and 6 pin i.link wires, the only difference between
>it and firewire is the name which stems back to when Apple charged a
>licensing fee for using the firewire name.

In fact Sonny (Panasonic and may be others) licensed the firewire 
technology from Apple. They paid a one time fee and so now do not 
have to pay anything to include it in there products. Why the name 
was changed I do not know. Companies that were not early adopters 
have been asked for a $1 per unit fee.

>   4 pin wires carry the same
>information at the same speed as the 6 pin the two additional pins are
>for carrying power.
>
>Gerhard
>
>On Jul 10, 2004, at 11:38 AM, Mark M.Florida wrote:
>
>>  The main difference between FireWire and i.Link is that "i.Link"
>>  devices only have the 4-pin connectors where anything labeled as
>  > "FireWire" can have either 4 or 6 pin connectors.
>