Course 310: 1394 (FireWire) Fundamentals

This class provides a thorough understanding of the IEEE 1394, its protocol, its core functionality and, the various options. It includes 1394a/1394b protocols, SBP-2 and 61883/AVC mappings.

Upon completion of this course, the participant will:

• Have a comprehensive system-wide knowledge of 1394a/b interface.
• Have an awareness of the existing and future 1394 applications.
• Be able to understand relevant information in the 1394 specifications.
• 1394 (FireWire) Protocol Overview and a good understanding of 1394a/b architecture, configurations, products, testing and Interoperabil, and vendors

Introduction

• IEEE 1394 implementations
• Serial connector
• Plug and play capability
• IEEE 1394 as a peer-to-peer interface
• Firewire™
• I.Link™

Why a Serial Bus?

• Parallel interfaces
• Parallel cables
• Physical characteristics
• Configuration

How does the deployment of 1394 compare with other serial interfaces?

• Differences
• Similarities
• Quality of service and traffic policing
• Capabilities that approach those provided by 1394
• Applications
• HAVi and UPnP

1394 Business and Technology Objectives

• Physical interface
• Architecture
• Topology
• 1394 Vendor ID
• Standards

Why 1394?

• Architecture
• Advantages and Disadvantages
• Future market of 1394
• Two levels of interface in IEEE 1394
• Backplane bus within the computer
• Point-to-point interface between device and computer on the serial cable
• The backplane data transfer rates 12.5, 25, or 50 megabits per second data
• The cable interface rates: 100, 200, or 400 megabits per second
• Asynchronous and isochronous
• Load-and-store applications
• Pre-set rates

1394 Topology

• Nodes per bus
• Buses together
• Tree structure

1394 Technical Overview

• Serial Bus Concept
• Protocol Architecture
• Asynchronous Operations
• Control and Status Registers
• IEEE 1212
• SCSI and ATA on 1394
• Serial Bus Protocol (SBP-2)
• Physical Characteristics
• Cable Configurations
• Physical Addressing
• Backplane Configuration
• Bus Initialization
• Tree and Self Identity
• Cycle Master Starts
• Building Topology Map
• Isochronous Operations
• Asynchronous vs. Isochronous
• Bus Management
• Isochronous Operations
• Cycle Control
• Packet Formats
• Power management
• CSR's and configuration ROM
• DC levels of DS encoding
• The scrambler and 8b/10b encoding.
• PHY, Link and PHY - Link interface
• Link Layer Devices
• Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) 1394 solutions
• 1394 OHCI 1.0-compliant link layer
• Physical Layer Devices
• Speed and packet size tradeoff

Manager Selection and Responsibilities

• 1394a
• 1394b
• Extended distance
• AC Couple media support
• Extended propagation delay support
• 8b/10b encoding
• Arbitration enhancements
• Higher speeds
• Greater distance
• New connectors

The IEEE 1394 Cable and Connector Specifications

• Copper wires
• Twisted pair shielded as is the entire cable
• The wires
• 8 to 40 VDC at up to 1.5 amps
• The cable connector
• Physical characteristics
• Cable configurations
• Arbitration and fairness
• Data-strobe encoding

Encapsulated protocols

• FCP
• AV/C
• SBP2
• IPv4
• DCP
• HAVi

PC Specifications ­ using 1394 in the PC environment

• SBP-2
• RBC for mass storage
• PWG for imaging peripherals
• SIDEBAR
• IP/1394
• OpenHCI
• Device Bay

1394 implementation issues

• 1394 implementation details
• The issue of long haul, ports, and connections
• Bilingual port
• 1394 driver development
• Commercial driver customization
• Customization and optimization of 1394 protocol
• Common pitfalls of 1394 HW and SW design

Base 1394 Test Suite Definition

• PHYsical Layer Testing
• System Board Testing
• Test Equipment for System Board Testing
• Input Impedance
• Transmit Jitter
• Transmit Skew
• Cable Power
• IEEE 1394 Bus & Protocol Analyzers
• Link Enabled Node Testing
• Required Function
• Optional Functions Link Enable Testing Procedures
• Transaction Capable
• Isochronous Capable Node
• Cycle Master Capable Node
• Isochronous Resource Manager Capable Node
• Bus Manager Capable Node

Testing and measurements

• IEEE 1394-1995 and P1394a compliance
• Programmable, real-time event triggering
• Pre-trigger event counting & sequencing
• Real-time traffic capture filtering
• Graphical display of bus transactions
• Graphical display of bus topology
• Accurate time stamping of bus packets
• Real-time, scriptable traffic generation
• Timing measurement & analysis functions
• Decoding of encapsulated protocols
• Buffer size
• Bus and timing utilization calculator
• Topology tree
• File based decoding
• Conformance Testing 1394bTCP/IP Over 1394
• Trigger on PHY packets