Issue:
Differences to consider when selecting an IEEE-1394 PCI / PCMCIA host adapter card.

Solution:

This article describes some of the differences to consider when purchasing an IEEE-1394 PCI / PCMCIA host adapter card.

Some of these differences can be attributed to the type of IEEE-1394 Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) (or chipset) used by the card. Common chipsets include: Lucent/Agere, VIA, and Texas Instruments (TI).

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF DMA CHANNELS
The number of simultaneous DMA channels (also known as isochronous transmit / receive contexts) supported by the card determines the number of IEEE-1394 cameras that can be running (streaming images) at the same time. Although the 1394a standard limits the maximum number of simultaneous isochronous channels to 16, there is currently no host adapter that is capable of supporting 16 channels.

FIFO BUFFER SIZE
The size of the on-chip isochronous and asynchronous receive and transmit FIFOs for the 1394 packets can affect 1394 streaming performance. Larger FIFO's generally result in better recovery from PCI bandwidth issues.

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