Abstract: A federated system comprising a plurality of input/output circuit card assemblies and a Firewire or other daisy-chainable bus that provides low latency communication between a host computer and peripheral devices. A single circuit card assembly is used to interface to each peripheral device, and communication between the host computer and peripheral device may be made using a plurality of different communication protocols. The input/output circuit card assembly is daisy-chainable and incorporates circuitry that implements a bus constructed to Firewire (IEEE-1394) and other electrical specifications.