What is a Firewire 800 cable?
Christopher Snyder
Updated on June 05, 2026
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Beside this, what is a FireWire 800 port for?
FireWire is a high-speed serial input/output (I/O) technology for connecting peripheral devices to a computer or to each other. It's one of the fastest peripheral standards ever developed—and now, at 800 megabits per second (Mbps), it's even faster.
Likewise, what is the difference between FireWire 400 and 800? The difference between these two is simply the speed at which they are able to transfer data. The numbers are referring to Mbps, which means that a Firewire 400 can transfer at the approximate rate of 400 Mbps, and the Firewire 800 connector is twice as fast as this.
Similarly, you may ask, what is a FireWire cable used for?
Along with USB, Firewire (also called IEEE 1394) is another popular connector for adding peripherals to your computer. Firewire is most often used to connect digital camcorders, external hard drives, and other devices that can benefit from the high transfer rates (up to 480 Mbps) supported by the Firewire connection.
Are there different types of FireWire cables?
There are two primary versions of the FireWire interface – FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394a) and FireWire 800 (IEEE 1394b). FireWire 400 uses a 6-pin connector and supports data transfer rates of up to 400 Mbps. FireWire 800 uses a 9-pin connector and can transfer data at up to 800 Mbps.
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