IEEE 1394 is an
interface standard for a
serial bus for high-speed communications and
isochronous real-time data transfer. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by
Apple, who called it
FireWire. The 1394 interface is comparable to
USB though USB has more market share. Apple first included FireWire in some of its 1999 Macintosh models, and most Apple Macintosh computers manufactured in the years 2000 - 2011 included FireWire ports. However, in 2011 Apple began replacing FireWire with the
Thunderbolt interface and, , FireWire has been replaced by Thunderbolt on new Macs. The 1394 interface is also known by the brand
i.LINK (
Sony), and
Lynx (
Texas Instruments).
IEEE 1394 replaced
parallel SCSI in many applications, because of lower
implementation costs and a simplified, more adaptable
cabling system. The 1394 standard also defines a
backplane interface, though this is not as widely used.