The IEEE Standards Association approved new FireWire specs set to give the technology support for increasing broadband speeds, for use with online video and other data-hungry apps. And it's just in time for USB 3.0 to step on it in a few weeks.

(Note: IEEE 1394 is the official name for the technology, while FireWire is Apple's proprietary label for it. Sony calls it i.LINK.)

The new 1394-2008 spec gives the technology improved support for bandwidths up to 3.2 Gbit/s, according to 9 to 5 Mac. The problem is that the new "rollup"spec was announced on July 9. And apparently no one noticed. Guess what that says about FireWire? Not much, apparently.

The standard provides specifications for a high-speed serial bus which supports both asynchronous and isochronous communication and integrates well with most IEEE standard 32-bit and 64-bit parallel buses. The new spec provides backwards-compatibility with all of the old specifications, as well.

The flagship additions, however, are the S1600 (1.6 Gigabit/second bandwidth) and S3200 (3.2 Gigabit/second) specs, which easily surpass the 480-Mbit USB 2.0 specification. USB 3.0, however, is slated to hit 4.8-Gbits/s when the spec is approved this fall; the smart money says that a USB 3.0 spec announcement will be timed for this year's Intel Developer Forum in mid-August. The IEEE 1394 update, meanwhile, is expected to be finalized in October.

Updated by Mark Hachman with USB 3.0 goodness, plus timetables.