Alexandro Urrutia

IEEE1394 b , the successor standard to 1394 a , also known as FireWire or i.Link, promises a bandwidth of 800 MBit/s. Microsoft, however, throws a spanner in the works by slowing the bus speed down to 100 MBit/s. Can drivers from Unibrain and OrangeWare put things right?

The PC continues to make its way into the living room as the multimedia box of choice. Images, music, videos: whatever the format, today's PC represents the ideal media player, whether for the PC screen or a flat panel TV screen. We survey home media center applications that are commercially available, as well as those yet to be released.