1394b Isolator

The ($32) cable helps to protect a computer's FireWire ports. "We have had such great response to our 1394a firewire port isolator cable that people started asking us for a 1394b version." This isolator cable fixes problems in long chains of many seperatly self powered firewire devices. These isolators prevent noise from the interconnected power lines from causing problems in long chains or where major differences. The isolator cable will help weed out bad cables, because a poorly made cable that does not adhere to the spec will fail using the isolator cable. You can continue to hot-swap devices (this cable does not pass bus power). The isolator cable has been designed to prevent charges from bad cables and faulty devices from going back up line and damaging the motherboard (such as the reported PowerBook problem many users have encountered).

by MacNN Staff