macosxuser
Registered
Mac pci usb and firewire compatibility depends mainly on the chipsets being used but can also depend on how the pci card is designed.
Some pci cards work in later Beige G3's but not in earlier Beige G3's for example.
Also some pci cards won't work in G5's.
NEC usb chips and Agere firewire chips seem to have the greatest compatibility with devices in osx and os9.
Usb pci cards using the NEC, ALI, TI or OPTI chipsets should all be ok in osx and os9.
For os9 usb 1.1 support install the Applebuilt USB extensions from the USB_DDK_1.5.5f1 and also install USB Storage 1.3.5.
Jaguar might need drivers to enable USB 2.0 support.
I have an NEC based usb card that has no problems in osx and os9.
VIA usb chipsets are only supported in osx and the VIA osx driver is really only for G4's.
VIA usb chipsets might be supported in Tiger without the VIA osx driver seeing that Tiger has an inbuilt UHCI driver.
On os9 VIA usb chipsets aren't supported at all.
Firewire pci cards using the NEC, ALI, TI or Agere (Lucent) chipsets should all be ok in osx and os9.
I have an Agere (Lucent) based firewire card that has no problems in osx and os9.
VIA firewire chips as far as I can tell have problems with osx.
I have a VIA usb firewire combo card and the firewire works in os9 but doesn't work in osx.
My VIA firewire vt6306 chip revision number is 46.
Revision 46 and lower of the vt6306 chip have a bug which misreports the maximum packet size.
The vt6306 chip works on os9 (probably because os9 ignores the maximum packet size) and doesn't work on osx (probably because osx doesn't ignore the maximum packet size).
If your revision is above 46 the firewire will probably work in osx.
The VIA usb chips use UHCI.
UHCI wasn't supported in osx until Tiger so a UHCI driver is required with Panther or Jaguar.
For the iMac Core Duo Apple uses Agere firewire chips and Intel usb UHCI chips.
Some pci cards work in later Beige G3's but not in earlier Beige G3's for example.
Also some pci cards won't work in G5's.
NEC usb chips and Agere firewire chips seem to have the greatest compatibility with devices in osx and os9.
Usb pci cards using the NEC, ALI, TI or OPTI chipsets should all be ok in osx and os9.
For os9 usb 1.1 support install the Applebuilt USB extensions from the USB_DDK_1.5.5f1 and also install USB Storage 1.3.5.
Jaguar might need drivers to enable USB 2.0 support.
I have an NEC based usb card that has no problems in osx and os9.
VIA usb chipsets are only supported in osx and the VIA osx driver is really only for G4's.
VIA usb chipsets might be supported in Tiger without the VIA osx driver seeing that Tiger has an inbuilt UHCI driver.
On os9 VIA usb chipsets aren't supported at all.
Firewire pci cards using the NEC, ALI, TI or Agere (Lucent) chipsets should all be ok in osx and os9.
I have an Agere (Lucent) based firewire card that has no problems in osx and os9.
VIA firewire chips as far as I can tell have problems with osx.
I have a VIA usb firewire combo card and the firewire works in os9 but doesn't work in osx.
My VIA firewire vt6306 chip revision number is 46.
Revision 46 and lower of the vt6306 chip have a bug which misreports the maximum packet size.
The vt6306 chip works on os9 (probably because os9 ignores the maximum packet size) and doesn't work on osx (probably because osx doesn't ignore the maximum packet size).
If your revision is above 46 the firewire will probably work in osx.
The VIA usb chips use UHCI.
UHCI wasn't supported in osx until Tiger so a UHCI driver is required with Panther or Jaguar.
For the iMac Core Duo Apple uses Agere firewire chips and Intel usb UHCI chips.