Quadruple speed FireWire specification approved

The IEEE today announced that it formally approved the IEEE 1394-2008 spec, which will introduce support for S1600 (1.6 Gb/s) and S3200 (3.2 Gb/s) while offering full backwards compatibility with S400 and S800 ports. Down the road, it is expected that IEEE 1394 will scale up to 6.4 Gb/s.

Firewire and i.Link desperately need the upgrade in order to remain competitive with USB, which will receive an upgrade to 4.8 Gb/s in version 3.0.

The IEEE 1394-2008 spec will become available in October, according to the IEEE. The USB 3.0 spec is expected to be published by the end of this year.