FireCard 400™ PCMCIA

1. Is FireCard 400™ Windows compatible? Do I need any drivers in order to install it?
   FireCard 400™ is natively supported by Windows Certified Drivers in all versions: Windows 98SE, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000 & Windows XP. No extra drivers are needed; they are provided by the Operating System itself.
2. Why can't I charge my iPod™ from FireCard 400™ even though it has a 6 pin port?
   The PCMCIA bus specification does not provide enough power to allow the PCMCIA cards to power external devices. Therefore, the PCMCIA Firewire cards do not provide enough power to the Firewire bus.
3. How can I provide external power to the Firewire bus and to the FireCard 400™ so that I can access the iPod at the same time while it’s battery is charged?
   This is possible by using a Firewire hub (or repeater). We sell such a repeater, see information here. The connectivity should be as shown at right.

   • You connect your iPod™ to one of the FireRepeater™’s ports
   • You connect the second repeater port to the FireCard 400™ with the standard Firewire cable that comes with it.
   • You connect the last FireRepeater™ port with either the AC adapter of the iPod™ or its docking station. Alternatively you can connect this port to a desktop computer’s Firewire port. This will provide enough power for the whole bus (iPod™, FireCard 400™).

   
   
4. How can I know that my FireCard 400™ and the iPod™ have been successfully recognized by Windows?

   After you connect the iPod to your computer’s Firewire port, you can check the installation by going to the Windows Device Manager and looking: First for the listing IEEE-1394 Bus host controller (this indicates that Firecard-400 has been installed and operating fine) Then check, under the "Disk Drives" category for the Apple iPod hard drive, as the picture below shows Important Note: NEVER remove your iPod before using the software eject/unmount option either by Windows or by the special tray icon provided by MusicMatch Jukebox. In the picture at right you can see the window that appears when you choose to unmount the iPod by the Windows eject function:

5. How can I know that my FireCard 400™ has been successfully recognized by my Mac?
   After you connect your FireCard 400™ in your laptop’s Cardbus slot, it should appear as an icon on the top bar of your OS X system, like the picture on the right. Use this command "Power off Card" before removing the FireCard 400™ from your laptop.
   

FireBoard 400™ Lynx / OHCI

1. What are the differences – and how do I choose?
   Unibrain produces two different host PCI adapters for use with an FireWire bus. Both are capable of 400Mbps speed and have full 1394 capability, but they are, nevertheless, quite different. As you may know, the typical FireWire interface consists of two integrated circuits (as well as a number of passives to support them): the PHY or Physical Layer chip, and the LINK or transaction layer chip. While there has been considerable standardization in PHYs over the last few years, LINKs with very different philosophies continue to be manufactured. The FireBoard 400™ is based on the TI TSB12LV21b LynxB LINK while the FireBoard 400-OHCI™ is based on the TI TSB12LV23/26 OHCI LINK.

   To simplify, the OHCI is easier to program, does more automatically, and is supported as a standard LINK by Microsoft under W98SE and W2000 (but not under WinNT). The LynxB is far more flexible and is capable of greater total throughput. It is supported by Unibrain under WinNT, W95, W98, W98SE and W2000. It is however; more difficult to program and is not supported with integrated drivers by Microsoft (though Unibrain can provide them). Unibrain’s commercial products: FireNet™ and FirePrint™ support both. The FireAPI™ supports the LynxB completely, but has only partial support (as of now) for the OHCI.

   Use the FireBoard 400-OHCI™ if:

   • You plan on using standard Windows software in non-critical applications
   • You do not need NT or any other OS
   • You need full compatibility with someone else's OHCI board

   Use the FireBoard 400™ if:

   • You need maximum throughput
   • You are transmitting or receiving large blocks (> 3K)
   • You need WinNT support
   • You are planning a port to another OS
   • You need more than 8 isochronous channels
   • You need a local (on card) bus
   • You have a special or industrial application that needs maximum control & reliability
   • Your CPU is already loaded and you need auxiliary processing power with minimum PCI bus activity
     (e.g. - adjusting buffer addresses from a list.)
   • You need special PCI master capability
2. Technical comparison of Link ASIC capabilities

   	LynxB TI TSB12LV21B	OHCI TI TSB12LV23/26
   FIFO sizes:	Software controlled	internally controlled
   PCI XMIT Threshold:	Software controlled	Fixed
   PCI RVC Threshold:	Software controlled	Fixed
   Internal Processing
   Power:	Yes	No
   Local Bus:	Yes	No
   Zoom Video Interface:	Yes	No
   GPIO Lines:	4	2
   PCI Slave Capabilities:	Config Read/Write Mem Read/Write Mem ReadLine/WriteLine	Config Read/Write Mem Read/Write Mem ReadLine/WriteLine
   PCI Master Capabilities:	Config Read/Write Mem Read/Write Mem ReadLine/WriteLine I/O Read/Write	Mem Read/Write ReadLine/WriteLine
   DMA Channels:	5 all purpose (Asynch/ISO/processing) 1 Asynch	Software controlled 8 Iso Fixed
   Context Switching:	Fast - Software controllable	Good - Internally controllable
   Max Block size reliably Transmitted:	> 4K*	1K Asynch 2.5K Iso

   Note: Very large blocks may (depending on speed) violate the FireWire Specification for Asynch transfer.