Does the 1394 bus compete with USB, SATA, HDMI or Fiber Channel?
This depends on your point of view. 1394 has features and capabilities in common with each of these interfaces, but there are also many differences. For example, USB, SATA and Fiber Channel are all computer-type interfaces, used nearly exclusively in a master-slave configuration. In contrast, 1394 is a peer-to-peer interface that works well for computer peripherals, but 1394 is also suitable for an environment with multiple devices that work cooperatively without a central PC for coordination, such as a living-room cluster of audio-video equipment. HDMI is commonly used to deliver a digital signal to a television, but it represents a one-way dead end connection that cannot be used cooperatively like 1394 can. The same video signal, if sent over 1394 instead of HDMI, will consume much less bandwidth, so it is far more practical to record for time-shifting or storage (if copyrights are honored).
