OFFTOPIC OSX
That firewire "channel" is needed for some hardware. If you use a 002 or a firewire sound card you better use
another channel for the audio drives. Is not needed, but on highest track counts is a need.
Also, with a firewire focusrite soundcard and a focusrite liquid DSP firewire card
2 firewire "channels"/torrents/stems firewire chipsets are needed.
A firewire "extra" channels is handy. Think on macs connected to other macs with firewire (instead of gigabit ethernet) and all the audio firewire interfaces with other channel, a addon PCI card. It worth having
also USB ports on the same "lost" PCI slot.
A LAN thru firewire is awesome on a OSX setup.