Apple is among the companies holding seats on the 1394 Trade Association board, with employee Eric Anderson reelected as its chairman for 2006. Other members include Samsung, Texas Instruments, Microsoft, Agere and Oxford Semiconductor.
The organization is "dedicated to the advancement and proliferation of the IEEE 1394 standard in the consumer electronics, computer, peripherals, automotive, industrial and other markets," it said in a statement. The standard was developed in 1986 by Apple, which dubbed it "FireWire," with the first specification completed in 1987. The standard was adopted in 1995 and expanded in recent years to what Apple calls FireWire 800.
While FireWire continues to be used in digital video cameras and external hard drives, it has lost out to USB 2.0 in many other consumer electronics, such as MP3 players and digital cameras. In fact, last year Apple dropped FireWire ports from its popular iPod, keeping only USB 2.0 connectivity.