$0.25 per system, not per port. http://www.mpegla.com/1394/ for more information on the licensing - which is handled by the MPEG Licensing Authority, who then divides up royalties and splits them amongst the patent holders. More FireWire information is available at http://www.teener.com/firewire_FAQ/ - the bit about cables is particularly interesting. The standard 6-pin connector was designed so that the wiper was in the cable end of the connector - so when it wore out, you could simply replace the cable, and all would be well. Virtually every other kind of connector in consumer gear that I can think of / see from where I'm sitting puts the wiper in the device. -Randy On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 9:47 AM, M. Adam Davis wrote: > $0.25 per port of a huge fee just for licensing. Producing a million > parts? $250k just for licensing, and you can't cost optimize that, > except by limiting the number of ports on the computer. It doesn't > seem bad since most computer manufacturers only include one, and > firewire daisy-chains. > > Then you realize that a peripheral that daisy chains has two ports. > $0.50 for a drive enclosure you intend to _sell_ for $35 is > significant, when the retailer expects $17 profit, your company needs > $8 profit, and manufacturing cost must be below $10, the firewire > licensing fee constitutues 5% of the product cost. > > A firewire hub was/is significantly more expensive than a USB hub, and > daisy chains are great if you never intend to unplug an item, but > cause grief if you don't have a hub and need to disconnect something > in the middle of a chain - if you're using files on a drive you'll > have to close them all, tell the OS you're disconnecting the drive so > it writes everything back, and then deal with it. > > Further, every device in the chain must support the highest speed > being used (does firewire even support low speeds?) so it simply > wasn't designed for mice and keyboards, or any low power devices. > This, in fact, may be where USB won the 'land war' - along with 2.5W > port power as a first class feature. > > Still, every bus has its features. Firewire absolutely beats out USB > in terms of latency and timing, critical in professional video/audio > production. Hopefully USB3 is addressing this issue... > > -Adam SNIP -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist