Several companies claim to have invented the USB flash drive. Trek was the first company to sell a USB flash drive (ThumbDrive) in early 2000. However, their patent does not describe the USB flash drive; rather, it describes a very broad family of storage devices which could include the USB flash drive.The Israeli company M-Systems (acquired by SanDisk in November 2006)[5] had been working on a USB flash drive since 1998. They registered the domain www.diskonkey.com on October 12, 1999,[6] indicating their intention to sell a product. In 2000 Dan Harkabi joined the M-Systems team and led the development of DiskOnKey. The industrial design was done by Ziba and the product won the IDEA award in 2001. M-Systems' patent rigorously describes the USB flash drive and its implementation.
An IBM invention disclosure RPS8-1999-0201 (Sept. 99) by Shimon Shmueli et al. is the earliest known document to describe the USB-FD accurately and completely, and only the USB-FD. M-Systems manufactured the DiskOnKey for IBM, which in late 2000 was the first to sell the product in North America. The IBM 8 MB (8 MiB) USB Memory Key became available December 15, 2000.[7][8] Shmueli later founded KeyNetica, the first company to patent and develop the concept that mobile and smart storage devices are all one needs for mobile computing. Current implementors of the concept are U3 (part of SanDisk, which also owns the original KeyNetica patent) and Ceedo.
Trek Technology claims it was first to conceive and create the ThumbDrive.[9]. Trek holds patents for the ThumbDrive in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Singapore.
Common uses
Personal data transportThe most common use of flash drives is to transport and store personal files such as documents, pictures and video. Individuals also store medical alert information on MedicTag flash drives for use in emergencies and for disaster preparation.
Secure storage of data, application and software files
With wide deployment(s) of flash drives being used in various environments (secured or otherwise), the issue of data and information security remains of the utmost importance. The use of biometrics and encryption is becoming the norm with the need for increased security for data; OTFE systems such as FreeOTFE and TrueCrypt are particularly useful in this regard, as they can transparently encrypt large amounts of data.
System administration
Flash drives are particularly popular among system and network administrators, who load them with configuration information and software used for system maintenance, troubleshooting, and recovery.
Computer repair
Flash drives enjoy notable success in the PC repair field as a means to transfer recovery and antivirus software to infected PCs, while allowing a portion of the host machine's data to be archived in case of emergency. As the drives have increased in storage space, they have also replaced the need to carry a number of CD ROMs and installers which were needed when reinstalling or updating a system.Application carriers
Flash drives are used to carry applications that run on the host computer without requiring installation. While any standalone application can be used this way, at least one company, U3, works with drive makers (parent company SanDisk as well as others) to deliver Windows applications from a flash drive custom-tuned for this purpose. U3 also provides a software framework for ISVs interested in their platform.
Law Enforcement
A recent development in the use of a UFD as an application carrier is the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE), developed by Microsoft. This is a USB drive preloaded with applications designed to help law enforcement officials to search for and extract digital evidence on computers confiscated from suspects[12].
To boot operating systems
Most current PC firmware permits booting from a USB drive, allowing the launch of an operating system from a bootable flash drive. Such a configuration is known as a Live USB.
While a Live USB could be used for general-purpose applications, size and memory wear make them poor choices compared to alternatives. They are more suited to special-purpose or temporary tasks
Future developments
Semiconductor corporations have worked to reduce the cost of the components in a flash drive by integrating various flash drive functions in a single chip, thereby reducing the part-count and overall package cost.
Flash drive capacities on the market are continuously increasing. As of 2008, 256 MB and smaller capacity flash memory has been largely discontinued, and 512 MB capacity flash memory is being phased out. High-speed is now a standard for modern flash drives and capacities of up to 64 GB are available [23].
Lexar is attempting to introduce a USB FlashCard [24] [25], which would be a compact USB flash drive intended to replace various kinds of flash memory cards. Pretec introduced a similar card, which also plugs into every USB port, but is just one quarter the thickness of the Lexar model [26] SanDisk has a product called SD Plus, which is a SecureDigital card with a USB connector.[27]
SanDisk has also introduced a new technology to allow controlled storage and usage of copyrighted materials on flash drives, primarily for use by students. This technology is termed FlashCP.
1 USB connector
2 USB mass storage controller device
3 Test points
4 Flash memory chip
5 Crystal oscillator
6 LED
7 Write-protect switch
8 Space for second flash memory chip
