With the recent announcement of a new IEEE 1394 specification, the IEEE has fired another shot in the perennial arms race between Firewire and USB. Yesterday's introduction of IEEE 1394-2008 promises speeds of up to 3.2Gbps with S3200-enabled devices.

The new standard also calls for backwards-compatibility with today's S800 and S400 Firewire ports. This gracious accommodation assures that new cables and devices will not be required when the standard slowly creeps into our desktops within the next 18 months. While the new standard does not surpass the 4.8Gbps to be offered by the impending USB 3.0 specification, a four-fold enhancement in Firewire throughput will leave few scoffing.