Plastic Optical
Fibers and 1394
The Impact on the Wiring Harness Industry

By Paul Polishuk, President

Information Gatekeepers, Inc.

This is the first of a two part series on the impact of two new technologies
that will have a major impact on the future of the Wiring Harness Business. 
These include Plastic Optical Fibers (POF) and 1394.  Plastic Optical Fiber
has been around for some time but the confluence of two new developments:

(1) Application of the 1394 standard to consumer electronics and

(2) The automobile industry movement to introduce a serial optical data bus to
reduce wiring costs, weight, and effects of EMI will drive the market for POF. 

Both of these two technologies work hand-in-hand, POF needs a market driver
such as 1394, and 1394 requires a high-speed, low cost serial transmission
medium and that is POF.  Both of these developments, the use of an optical
data bus and the 1394 standard will have a major impact on the harness
business, by reducing the number and types of wires used.

What is 1394?

1394 is an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard
for a serial digital data bus. Originally developed as a low cost solution for
digital consumer electronics, the original standard was approved in 1995,
sometimes called 1394-1995, has a capability of operating over 4.5 meters
at speeds up to 400Mbps.

(Note: The full version of the above article may be obtained by downloading the pdf file or e-mailing: marilyn@wiringharnessnews.com )

                     Plastic_Optical.pdf   (Adobe Acrobat Required)