External 1394b enclosures in early '03?


Amongst the minutia that goes into creating an external 1394b storage solution is a chip called a "phy." This bit of silicon, as it has been explained to me, translates data from digital to analog and back again and is necessary for creating a working solution. For better and worse, there are only two manufacturers of phy chips -- Texas Instruments (TI) and Apple, which purchased the technology from Xante some time ago.

In fact, the Xante technology purchased by Apple was created by FireWire engineers that once worked for the Mac maker. Odd how these things turn out some times...

As many already know, Oxford's 1394b solution, the 922 bridge, is essentially ready to go and will enter mass production some time over the next few weeks. This is all well and good except that the company doesn't offer a phy of its own. Moreover, Alen Kuo, who handles TI's 1394 OEMs in Taiwan told me today that his company's phy won't enter mass production until November at the earliest.

According to sources close to TI, a short production run -- essentially a final beta test -- will be made early in Q4, but the quantity of chips available at that time will be highly limited. Therefore, some 1394b storage solutions may start trickling out early in Q4, but not mass market quantities.

The other source of 1394b-compatible phys, Apple, apparently won't sell them to peripheral makers. As one insider put it, "No one can get their hands on any. Apple just won't sell us any."

The bottom line here is that 1394b external storage solutions won't be available in quantity until the end of the year -- if then. So, Apple will in all likelihood begin shipping Macs with FireWire 2 on the motherboard, but you probably won't be able to purchase 1394 storage devices until months after the new pro desktops become available.

I don't know what effect this "phy shortage" will have on the availability of other peripherals -- scanners, DV devices, etc.

A charitable person might say that the upcoming FireWire 2 roll-out will be "staggered." A skeptic might say that the various vendors involved clearly lack coordination (i.e. don't have their shit together, collectively or individually).

On a positive note, Oxford's 922 bridge features both 1394b and USB 2.0 on the same chip, and USB 2.0 portion of that silicon does include a built-in phy. Granted, real-world USB 2.0 storage devices still only provide throughput of 13.5M/sec (give or take), but component shortages/delays won't hold up its introduction.