This year’s 1394 Developers Conference, scheduled for July 31-Aug 2 at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond, WA, will be sponsored by Apple, Microsoft, and … Intel? Yep, those are three of the companies who are members of the 1394 Trade Association. The association is devoted to the promotion of 1394, better known to Mac users as FireWire.
FireWire is a peripheral interface, developed by Apple, used on Macs and many Wintel systems to connect digital cameras, scanners, hard drives, CD-Rs and other high-speed peripherals.
Other sponsors of the conference include Philips Semiconductors, Zayante, Wipro and VividLogic. The conference, now in its fifth year, is moving from its traditional Silicon Valley location to Redmond — the home of Microsoft’s corporate campus.
Two afternoon “Ask the Experts” sessions are on tap to be held from 3-5 p.m. on Aug. 1 and 2. Small group sessions will be created for individuals who want them for individual design questions. All of the FireWire leaders will provide experts for the sessions. The 1394 Developers’ Conference will also feature presentations about the recently introduced wireless 1394 initiatives, new automotive applications, 1394.1 bridging design, and other topics.
There’ll be design presentations focused on the new 1394b specification, which defines bandwidths of 800 Megabits/second with scalability to 3.2 Gigabits/second, along with longer cable lengths and backward compatibility with all versions of the 1394 standard. The conference also includes design workshops to help engineers start new designs, driver-writing sessions hosted by Apple and Microsoft, and a marketing and management track covering the latest market developments.
The 1394 Trade Association consists of more than 160 computer, consumer products, peripheral and software companies worldwide. For more information go to the Trade Association Web site.