IP: FIRESTORM IGNITES OVER FIREWIRE

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Apple Computer's demand for royalties of $1 per port for use of what's now 
called the 1394 interface is sparking protests from chip and system makers 
who say the royalty is much too high. The 1394, which was conceived at 
Apple and called FireWire, is used in various camcorders; in PCs from 
Compaq, NEC and Sony; and in Apple's latest G3 Macintosh computers. Under 
the Apple royalty plan, a three-port physical layer 1394 chip that sells for 
less than $5 would incur a $3 royalty charge. "You can't have Apple make 
more money from a 1394 chip than the semiconductor maker does," says a 
source who asked not to be named. "Eventually, Apple will have to realize 
this is just not going to happen." (EE Times 20 Jan 99)