Why FW interfaces have two FW ports...

[studiomaster]

Why is it that firewire audio interfaces have two outputs for firewire? Does this mean i can connect the outputs to two different computers?

 

[altitude909]

no, its for adding another firewire device in a chain

 

[studiomaster]

no, its for adding another firewire device in a chain

Cool..thanks. so it's sort of like an extra firewire port.

 

[MessianicDreams]

Cool..thanks. so it's sort of like an extra firewire port.

well mostly not. its for daisy chaining. it's an "input only" if you will.

 

[studiomaster]

thanks guy....im getting the MOTU ultralite and yorkville YSM1P's this week.
how does it sound?

 

[dgatwood]

Technically, if the interface were designed to be able to support it (mostly firmware), you could probably connect two computers and get away with it. This usually doesn't work very well for audio interfaces, though, unless only one of the machines has drivers for the device in question.

As for the reason for the second port? Some people ask for it, and it only costs an extra few cents to use a two-port PHY and add a second connector.