The PowerBook G4 (17-inch) and PowerBook G4 (17-inch 1.33GHz) computers include one FireWire 400 port and one FireWire 800 port. They are located on the right side of the computer. The connectors are not identical, and require different cabling. As well as each port having its own cable, an adapter cable can be used to allow the FireWire 800 port to connect to FireWire 400 devices.
Figure 1 Location of FireWire ports
Power considerations
The two ports share a single power supply that provides up to 7 W of power per port. They are on the same FireWire bus. You can connect to up to 62 FireWire devices to them simultaneously. If you connect a bus-powered FireWire device to the computer while it is operating from battery power, the battery will empty sooner. This decreases the amount of time the computer can run on battery power.
FireWire target disk mode
Both the FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 ports can be used with FireWire target disk mode. For more information on target disk mode, see technical document 58583, "Macintosh: How to Use FireWire Target Disk Mode".
Figure 1 Location of FireWire ports
Power considerations
The two ports share a single power supply that provides up to 7 W of power per port. They are on the same FireWire bus. You can connect to up to 62 FireWire devices to them simultaneously. If you connect a bus-powered FireWire device to the computer while it is operating from battery power, the battery will empty sooner. This decreases the amount of time the computer can run on battery power.
FireWire target disk mode
Both the FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 ports can be used with FireWire target disk mode. For more information on target disk mode, see technical document 58583, "Macintosh: How to Use FireWire Target Disk Mode".