1394 is designed to function as both a cable-connected virtual bus and as a backplane bus achieves speeds up to 400Mbps. Higher speeds in the range of one gigabits-per-second are possible in the future. This type of performance has enabled many new PC applications such as real-time digital video.

When compared with older serial and parallel I/O buses, 1394 offers a rich set of advanced features, Including live connection/disconnection of devices onto a 1394 based cable I/O system or of boards into a 1394-based backplane. The standard also supports both asynchronous and synchronous forms of communication on the same system. Whereas synchronous communication can be used to guarantee bandwidth for certain time-critical applications like streaming video or audio, asynchronous communication is appropriate for the typical PC peripherals such as printers or disk drives.

The topology of a 1394 network resemble a tree structure. Each node on a 1394 network function as repeater; forwarding the signals on to the next node in the daisy-chain. As many as 63 nodes can be configure on a desktop and up to 64,000 devices in a 1394 network using bridges.

Because of its high-capacity bandwidth and advanced features, 1394 has the ability to consolidate many older standards and I/O methods into one unified, High-performance serial bus. Eventually, expanding a 1394-based computer system will be as simple and as easy as plugging an appliance into an AC power socket The PC will provide instantaneous communication on demand to the peripheral device that is new to the 1394 bus and the user will not have to manually reconfigure and shut down the system.

On systems and products from Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Canon and Sharp, 1394 goes by the name of iLink. while Apple Computer refers to it as FireWire