PreSonus Firepod compatability

I just purchased Cubase 10.5 Pro.

I was previously recording on a 2006 iMac with Cubase 4 and a PreSonus Firepod ver 1.0
(2004).

I now have a 2012 iMac running Catalina OSX.

I quickly realized that the FireWire 400 cable from the old Firepod was not going to plug into my iMac Thunderbolt or USB ports.
I can purchase a FireWire 400 to FireWire 800 adapter, in addition to a FireWire 800 to Thunderbolt adapter and viola! I can plug the old Firepod into my iMac.
My question is, will Cubebase 10.5 recognize my antiquated PreSonus Firepod?
Is my old Firepod supported by Catalina OSX?
Is it time to purchase a new audio interface?

Thanks, Tom

What you are considering sounds like a lot of expense and technical risk to try to save a fifteen year old audio interface. Really, this isn’t a Cubase question but two questions you need to ask PreSonus - whether the hardware is compatible with the adapters and the drivers are compatible with the latest version of OS X. I would not be surprised if their answer is “this interface has been unsupported for many years and we cannot guarantee anything”.

Whilst I realise replacing an 8 input audio interface will not be cheap, I would question the long term reliability of hardware that is approximately fifteen years old even if you can persuade it to work for now.

I use a presonus firestudio under windwos 10 pro with the last driver version they supplied. Works without any issues.

It is a shame that vendors stop driver/software support so often - this is like NOT exploiting the power of software and vitualization. Because: Hardware of that kind can survive 50 years if built properly. To make them obsolete is only an artificial step in order to sell new things. Sustainability is something different…

But it costs money to keep the drivers current/useable. There is not much incentive for the manufacturers to do so.
Don’t know how that could be changed, if we had to pay for driver updates, there would be an outcry, pitchforks would be sharpened and the universe would possibly end :wink:
To open source, would be a possible solution, I just don’t think anybody would be passionate enough spend the time coding a new driver.

I would not see any problem in paying for the driver updates. This is what virtualization and digitalization is about: The SOFTWARE chanes, the hardware can “last longer”.