Agere firewire chipset , , any good compared to texas instruments ? ?

rxkevco

rxkevco

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Have just bought an ASUS PQ5 PRO motherboard to base my new build Daw on and have just found out tht the firewire chipset is by a company called "AGERE ", , , has anyone come across this chip before, ,any good or bad storys about it ? ? ?

Buying a gret board like the PQ5 i just presumed its firewire would be the well accepted texus instruments chip, , but its not.

Any advice on what interfaces to steer clear of cos the next purchase on the cards wil be a firewire card ? ?

Many thanks, kev

http://www.soundclick.com/kevinpaulcoughlan
 
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No. TI is the best and Agere is one of the worst. Its what caused all the problems and incompatability on the MacBook revision several months ago (that Apple quiclky fixed).
 
Thanks for that, , my heart has just missed a beat, , , , shit !
I spent a lot of money on that board as well, ,

Were there any " decent " firewire cards that were compatible ? ? ?
 
Belkin, Siig, Sonnet, and many others make fw cards with TI chipsets. Its usually listed in the specs.
 
Sorry, i meant to say " any decent firewire interfaces " that might be compatible with this particular chip ?
 
IT tends to be that the more expensive interfaces have better compatability. But in this case even RME was inconsistant with that chipset. Best bet for you is to just get a PCIe FW card and run your interface off of that.
 
No way is Agere the worst. Ricoh is by far the most noncompliant (many of them are not OHCI compliant at all, and their combo chipsets have massive interrupt latency issues), followed by NEC (buggy as heck), followed by TI Lynx (pre-OHCI). Compared to any of those chipsets, Agere is practically a jewel.

I'd put Agere in the same quality level as VIA. Everybody tests their devices against TI chipsets, so you are least likely to have compatibility problems with TI chipsets, but VIA and Agere are still mostly reliable with most devices.

If you are planning to use DICE II hardware, you're screwed with the Agere chipset (but then, you're probably screwed trying to use DICE II stuff anyway). For most other interfaces, just make sure you have the latest versions of the drivers for the Agere FireWire chipset and the latest driver versions and firmware versions for your FireWire interface and you'll probably be okay.

If you have problems, you can always get a FireWire card later. Until you have problems, though, I wouldn't bother, as you probably won't have any problems, IMHO. Buying a card now would be like buying a spare head gasket for your car in case it blows.... :D
 
Thanks for that , , i havent yet got a firewire device anyway, , am still planning on using my steinberg M14 usb device until i can afford to go firewire.
What type of firewire sockets do most audio interfaces have, , am a little confused as to the difference between the 4 pin and 6 pin types ? ?
 
4 pin is unpowered as on a laptop. 6 pin is regular firewire 400 and carries power. 9 pin is for Firewire 800, but can be downconverted to 400 with a simple 9 to 6 pin cable.

In my testing here, I found Agere to be problematic with Dice2, MOTU, and RME. That covers a good majority of interfaces on the market these days (including Presonus, TC Electronic, new Maudio, new Focusrite, and others). While I agree Ricoh is just as bad or worse, its still down there.
 
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