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USB flash drive

A USB flash drive is essentially NAND-type flash memory integrated with a USB 1.1 or 2.0 interface used as a small, lightweight, removable data storage device of up to 16 GB (as of 2006). Depending on the drive type and OS version, and in some cases what patches are installed, the drives generally work with Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, Macintosh, Linux, and other Unix-like platforms that support USB.

SB flash drives are also known as pen drives, thumb drives, flash drives, USB keys, and a wide variety of other names. They are also sometimes erroneously called memory sticks, which is a Sony trademark describing their propriety memory card system. A flash drive consists of a small printed ciruit board encased in a robust plastic[1] or

metal casing[2], making the drive sturdy enough to be carried about in a pocket, as a keyfob, or on a lanyard. Only the USB connector protudes from this protection, and is usually covered by a removable cap. Most flash drives feature the standard type-A USB connection allowing them to be connected directly to the port. Some small drives have been made with a thin

pug designed to mate with a standard USB port[3] but these are very rare.

Flash drives are active only when powered by a USB computer connection, and require no other external power source or battery power source; key drives are run off the limited supply afforded by the USB connection (5 volts and up to 500 mA). To access the data stored in a flash drive, the flash drive must be connected to a

computer, either by direct connection to the computer's USB port or via a USB hu. Some need most of the power a standard USB port can supply and therefore cannot be use with a bus powered hub.

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History

he flash drive was first invented in 1998 at IBM as a floppy drive replacement for the ThinkPad line of products. Although there is an IBM disclosure, they did not patent it. IBM later contracted M-

Systems to develop and manufacture it non-exclusively. MSystems holds the patent to this device, as well as a few other related patents. The first flash drives were made by M-Systems under the Disgo brand in the following

sizes: 8MB, 16MB, 32MB & 64MB. These were marketed as a true floppy-killer and this design was continued up to 256MB. Asian manufacturers soon started making their own flash drives cheaper than the

Disgo series. Modern flash drives have USB 2.0 connectivity, however they do not currently use the full 480Mbit/s the specification suppports due to technical limitations.

Common uses Network administration Flash drives as audio players Flash drives for applications Flash drives to boot operating systems

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Naming confusion: No commonly recognized term of these devices has emerged. All of the following names (optionally prefixed with USB) have been used: chubidubi datakey datastick diskonkey gigachip nerdstick

fngerdrive fashdisk flashdrive

piripicho USBdrive jumpdrive

pendrive thumbkey nerdnecklace

pocketdrive memorystick geekstick

keyfob doofer keydrive

thumbdrive magicstick mobiledrive

Janica B. Frias EDPS015 N3 08/06/13

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