A Chance For The Specialists

Microsoft's attitude presents an opportunity for the makers of 1394 software stacks like the Greek specialist Unibrain . In the same way the Californian software forge OrangeWare , which specializes in driver programming and offers its own optimized drivers, steps up to center stage.

According to Unibrain, its driver, named ubCore, like the rival product from OrangeWare, produces a marked speed advantage compared to the standard OHCI drivers in Windows XP SP2.

With its ubCore 3.2 , Unibrain, by its own admission, offers "the first and only driver suite that completely supports the 1394b standard". It cites the 1394 chip maker Texas Instruments, which has accorded Unibrain the honor of "ideal software partner". ubCore completely replaces the 1394 driver stack from Windows, which takes some getting used to during installation. However, it has the advantage that it also functions under older Windows versions such as NT 4. Microsoft does not even offer any FireWire support for the latter. Unibrain provides ubCore as a free 30-minute test version for downloading . It works under Windows NT 4.0/98SE/ME/2000/XP/2003. ubCore requires an authorization product key for permanent operation that can be purchased FireWire 800/1394b driver from OrangeWare is based on the driver stack from Windows, and is designed to support FireWire800/1394b in Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, and XP. OrangeWare offers producers of FireWire800/1394b host controllers "attractive conditions", but does not sell this software directly to end-users.

With its own ubCore drivers, Unibrain promises up to seven times higher throughput than with the OHCI drivers in Windows XP SP2.

As a point of comparison: The readings from OrangeWare with its own and Microsoft's drivers.