When I was growing up in the ’90s I always read about this mythical connection called FireWire. It was a connection mainly found on Macs, and I had never even seen a Mac in person until I was an adult, but long before then it had lost to USB decisively even on its home Macintosh turf. Or did it?
The relationship between FireWire and USB is an interesting one, and it turns out that we’re basically still using it today. Even if you didn’t know it.
FireWire was never really about consumers
For the pros only
From the start, FireWire was marketed (especially by Apple) as a high-performance data transfer technology. Not as a general-purpose replacement for the serial, parallel, and PS/2 ports.
As far as I know (and based on a few minutes of furious internet searching) no one was making mice for FireWire. It just wasn’t what the goal was. Instead, this was the interface you needed to get external storage running at speeds that made it usable. A true alternative to the SCSI interface used by devices like the Iomega Jaz drive, which also eventually got a FireWire adapter.
Quiz
PC ports and motherboard I/O
Trivia challenge
Think you know your USB from your PCIe? Put your connector knowledge to the test.
PortsStandardsHardwareConnectorsMotherboards
Which USB connector type is fully reversible, meaning it can be plugged in either way?
Correct! USB Type-C features a symmetrical oval design that lets you insert it in either orientation. Introduced in 2014, it has become the dominant connector for modern devices and supports everything from data transfer to video output and fast charging.
Not quite — the answer is USB Type-C. The older USB Type-A connector (the flat rectangular one) famously required you to flip it at least twice before getting it right. USB Type-C’s reversible design was one of its biggest selling points when it launched in 2014.
What does the ‘x16’ in a PCIe x16 slot refer to?
Exactly right! PCIe x16 means the slot has 16 data lanes, allowing significantly more bandwidth than smaller x1 or x4 slots. This is why discrete graphics cards almost always use x16 slots — they need that extra throughput to feed pixel data to your display.
Not quite — the ‘x16’ refers to the number of data lanes. More lanes mean more simultaneous data paths between the CPU and the card. Graphics cards use x16 slots because their massive data demands require all 16 of those lanes working together.
Which port on a motherboard is most commonly used to connect a display directly to the CPU’s integrated graphics?
That’s correct! The HDMI and DisplayPort connectors found on a motherboard’s rear I/O panel are wired directly to the CPU’s integrated graphics unit. If you have a discrete GPU installed, you should use that card’s outputs instead for best performance.
The right answer is the HDMI or DisplayPort connectors on the rear I/O panel. These ports bypass the discrete GPU entirely and tap into the CPU’s built-in graphics. It’s a common troubleshooting trap — plugging a monitor into the motherboard instead of the GPU and wondering why nothing works.
What is the primary function of the 24-pin ATX connector on a motherboard?
Spot on! The 24-pin ATX connector is the main power connector that delivers multiple voltage rails — including 3.3V, 5V, and 12V — from the power supply to the motherboard. Without it seated properly, your PC simply won’t power on at all.
The correct answer is delivering power from the PSU to the motherboard. The 24-pin ATX connector is the big wide plug you’ll find on every modern motherboard. It supplies several different voltage levels that the board distributes to components. PCIe cards get their supplemental power from separate 6- or 8-pin connectors directly from the PSU.
Which of the following rear I/O ports transmits both audio and video in a single cable and is most commonly found on modern motherboards?
Correct! HDMI carries both high-definition audio and video over a single cable, making it one of the most convenient display connectors available. It became standard on motherboards as integrated graphics improved, and modern versions support 4K and even 8K resolutions.
The answer is HDMI. VGA is analog-only and carries no audio, DVI-D is digital video only without audio, and S-Video is an older analog format. HDMI bundles both audio and video digitally, which is why it became the go-to connector for TVs, monitors, and motherboard rear panels alike.
What maximum theoretical data transfer speed does USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 support?
Impressive! USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 achieves 20 Gbps by using two 10 Gbps lanes simultaneously — that’s what the ‘2×2’ means. It requires a USB Type-C connector and is most commonly found on high-end motherboards, making it ideal for fast external SSDs.
The correct answer is 20 Gbps. The ‘2×2’ in the name is the key clue — it bonds two 10 Gbps channels together. USB naming got notoriously confusing around this era, with the same physical port potentially supporting very different speeds depending on the generation label printed in the spec sheet.
What is the role of the M.2 slot found on most modern motherboards?
Well done! M.2 is a compact form-factor slot that most commonly hosts NVMe SSDs, which connect via PCIe lanes for blazing-fast storage speeds. Some M.2 slots also support SATA-based SSDs and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo cards, making the slot surprisingly versatile.
The correct answer is housing compact storage drives or wireless cards. M.2 replaced the older mSATA standard and supports both PCIe NVMe drives and SATA drives depending on the slot’s keying. NVMe M.2 drives can achieve sequential read speeds many times faster than traditional SATA SSDs.
Which audio connector color on a standard PC rear I/O panel is designated for the main stereo line output to speakers or headphones?
That’s right! The green 3.5mm jack is the standard line-out port used for speakers and headphones in the PC audio color-coding scheme. Blue is line-in for recording, and pink is the microphone input — a color system that’s been consistent across PC motherboards for decades.
The correct answer is green. PC audio jacks follow a long-standing color convention: green for headphones and speakers, blue for line-in (recording from external sources), and pink for the microphone. It’s one of those legacy standards that has quietly persisted even as USB and digital audio have become more common.
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What made FireWire special wasn’t just speed. It offered deterministic data transfer, meaning devices could rely on consistent throughput without interruptions. It also allowed peer-to-peer communication, so devices could talk directly to each other without constantly involving the CPU.
External storage devices and cameras were the main devices, and so FireWire was common in the media industry. Professional sound interfaces, video capture devices, and even peer-to-peer computer networking were some uses the FireWire port was put to. Back then, these were not devices or use cases the average home user had any interest in. This was before live-streaming, making YouTube videos, or even editing home videos were common. Something that even our mobile phones can do today and we all dabble in to one degree or another.
8/10
- Ports
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10
- USB Power Delivery
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Yes, up to 140W
- Power supply included
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Yes
- Max display res.
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8K 60
The Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock is a high-performance docking station that can support triple 4K displays at 120Hz. It also offers ultra-fast data transfer speeds up to 120Gb/s, and expands storage with up to 8TB SSD capacity.
USB won the market, not the capability race
It was actually universal
As I pointed out already, it’s not completely fair to compare USB to FireWire since they weren’t designed to compete, but since USB was so versatile it inevitably started doing the same jobs. The first version of USB that the public could use in their computers was USB 1.1 with a maximum speed of 12Mbps or about 1.5MB/s.
Compare that to the first generation of FireWire, which could move data at up to 400Mbps or about 49MB/s and the difference is laughable. That is, until USB 2.0 pushed that number to 480Mbps. FireWire would get faster, but for most people who were not professionals and who didn’t care about the lack of CPU impact FireWire boasted, USB 2.0 was more than enough.
Even over two decades after its release, USB 2.0 is still with us but FireWire was effectively dead by 2008. Incidentally, that’s the same year we got 5Gbps USB 3.0. FireWire had 1.6Gbps and 3.2Gbps versions at the end, but these were rare and there was no time for new device to come out that supported the new standards before Steve Jobs and the other major decision makers canned the standard. Meanwhile, Apple’s latest new MacBook, the Neo, still has a USB 2.0 port. There’s some irony in that.
- Operating System
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macOS
- CPU
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A18 Pro
The MacBook Neo with the A18 Pro chip is Apple’s most affordable laptop yet, with all-day battery life and buttery-smooth performance in a thin and light profile.
Firewire’s DNA lived on in Thunderbolt
The legacy remains
If the story stopped there, it would be interesting enough, but it takes a much stranger twist. You see, Apple and Intel went on to co-develop Thunderbolt, and if you look at what sets Thunderbolt apart, it starts to sound a lot like FireWire.
Thunderbolt supports direct memory access, allowing devices to move data without constantly waking the CPU. It also enables daisy-chaining multiple devices on a single port. And it provides extremely high bandwidth while maintaining low latency.
USB and FireWire have fused (sort of)
If you consider Thunderbolt the spiritual successor to FireWire, then there’s a somewhat poetic denouement to all this. First, Thunderbolt adopted the USB-C connector, and then later the USB4 specification included Thunderbolt 3.
So the two peripheral technologies which were seen as being in competition with each other ended up resolving their differences in a way. FireWire proper even hung around longer than you might think. People still used these devices for years after the official end, and in fact FireWire support was only removed from macOS with macOS 26 Tahoe!
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
