Lately it has been all the rage to talk about the advent of USB 3.0, the first update to the USB specification in eight years, and one that promises tenfold transfer speed improvement.  And certainly that’s something worth talking about.  But what many authors are failing to mention is that the Apple to USB’s Microsoft, which is FireWire, is also working fervently on a specification update of their own called FireWire 3200.  Although USB 3.0 products are expected to be quicker off the production line, both standards have already been ratified, and we could see both USB 3.0 and FireWire 3200 merchandise in production sooner rather than later.  This naturally begs the question: So which is better?

This is a guest post by Daniel Shain from LaptopLogic.com – a well established laptop site filled with laptop reviews, news and articles.

USB 3.0 has the faster transfer rate at 4.8 Gigabits per second (Gbps), which is ten times greater than the transfer rate of USB 2.0. The updated interface also boasts greater power efficiency so that it shouldn’t be so draining on your power (this in particular affects laptops) as well as an increase in power output from 100milliamps to 900milliamps. The improved power output allows it to charge devices more quickly and power more devices directly through USB instead of through a power cord. USB 3.0 is also backwards compatible with older versions of USB. Although plugging your USB 3.0 device into a USB 2.0 port will only net you USB 2.0 speeds (and vice versa), users will not have to purchase new hardware or wires to use their USB devices, old or new.

Although FireWire 3200 only promises a transfer rate of 3.2Gbps, the P2P architecture has been known to generate a higher percentage of the promised yield than the master/slave architecture of USB. This means that it may have a faster transfer rate in practical application even though it doesn’t in theoretical testing. FireWire already had a strong edge on USB for power output, and despite the improvements in USB 3.0 the difference remains. FireWire is able to produce about twice as much power as USB, and is therefore better able to charge and independently run hardware. FireWire 3200 is also backwards compatible with FireWire 800 as well as an intermediate standard, FireWire 1600 (which is just like 3200 but runs at 1.6Gbps). This means users will be able to use their old cables and devices just as before, but it should be noted that if you have a new FireWire 3200 cable/device you can use it with your old FireWire 800 port and still achieve 3.2Gpbs speeds.

USB 3.0 trying to compete with FireWire 3200 reminds me a lot of Vista trying to compete with Leopard last year. The jump from Windows XP to Windows Vista was tremendous in terms of design and OS features in comparison with the jump from OSX 10.4 (Tiger) to OSX 10.5 (Leopard), yet despite this Leopard maintained an edge over Vista because XP was so much further behind Tiger. Here, the jump from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 is similarly greater than the jump from FireWire 800 to FireWire 3200. But despite the improvements, FireWire still maintains a notable technical edge in power output, backwards compatibility, and possibly even applied transfer rate. So why choose USB? For the same reasons many choose PC over Macs – they’re cheaper, more readily available, and more widely used. People who chose USB 2.0 over FireWire 800 will find no compelling reason not to choose USB 3.0 over FireWire 3200. But despite the press that USB gets and the discouraging fact that Apple chose to omit FireWire from its new MacBooks, it is important to remember that the specification is still there, and still quite useful for the right people and jobs.