Firewire a compatible with firewire b?

[KeyTap]

yo folks, I've been interested in an icybox harddrive caddy. I've got firewire a on my laptop, but was wondering if firewire b would be compatible, Ie working at firewire a speed. is there a firewire b to a converter?

Ta in advance.

Joe

 

[ByteJuggler]

Firewire 800 (1394b) is fully backwards compatible with the older format Firewire 400 (1394a)

If you're talking about the small connector on your laptop, that's a seperate issue from whether or not you're running 1394a or b standard. The 2 types of socket (mini firewire and normal firewire) are used AFAIK on both 1394a and b, much like is the situation with USB and USB2.0 which also has multiple socket types. Edit: However I've just checked and Firewire800 does introduce its own type of socket. See here.