Firewire Add-in Cards

If you're looking to move up to IEEE 1394 ports but don't want to drop the cash to get a new motherboard that supports them, you're best bet is probably an add-in card. Quatech Inc. is now putting forth two new IEEE 1394 "Firewire" adapters for PCI and CardBus interfaces. The new TFC-100 provides two four-pin IEEE 1394 ports and one six-pin port (including power) via the PCI bus. The DFP-100 provides two six-pin ports via a CardBus interface. Both cards use 32-bit bus mastering and support operating speeds of 100, 200, and 400 Mbps. They're compatible with all IEEE 1394a devices, and are backward compatible with IEEE 1394-1955 devices. Support is provided under Windows 98/Me/2000 and the cards come bundled with video editing packages. Quatech's TFC-100 (PCI) lists for $129 and the DFP-100 (CardBus) lists for $149.