How does GigE differ from IEEE 1394 (Firewire)?
1394 allows up to 63 devices to be connected on one shared bus. The maximum distance between devices is 4.5 m. The latest version of 1394 (1394b) has 800 Mb/s of total bandwidth, with 512 Mb/s available for image data. All devices on the bus share this bandwidth, and may thus have to queue for access, interfering with real-time operation. By contrast, each device on a GigE network has a dedicated connection – there is no queuing for access. The maximum distance between GigE-connected devices and PCs and/or switches is 100 m. At 1 Gb/s, GigE has almost twice the image bandwidth capacity of 1394b.
