What is a USB flash drive? Also called thumb drive, memory stick or pen drive/pendrive, it is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface.
But what is a flash memory?
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be erased and reprogrammed, thus allowing users to use it to store all types of data, from text to movie files. It’is used in memory cards, usb flash drives, SSDs, smartphones and many other electronic devices that are able to record, transfer and erase data.
Who invented the USB Flash Drive?
Many different people claim to be the inventors and many patent disputes involving it have arisen over the years with accusations of infringements of the patents. In 2000, the first usb flash drive was introduced on the market and it was sold by Trek 2000 International, a company based in Singapore, soon followed by IBM.
USB Flash Drive advantages
The first usb flash drives could store only 8 mb of data, which wasn’t a lot even for the time. But it was perfect for easily transferring data between the flash drive and a computer. CDs could hold much more data but it took longer because you had to record the CD after adding the files. It wasn’t just a copy/paste operation. And it was much easier to have a usb flash drive in your pocket to carry to work or school due to its small size and light weight.
Improvements
Storage capacity kept getting higher over the years, and prices getting lower turning the usb flash drive a must have, as it allowed everyone to carry a large amount of data in their pockets. As of January 2024, you can find usb flash drives that can carry up to 2tb of data, which is more capacity than most SSDs that come in computers on the market have.
But they didn’t improve only in the storage capacity. The data transfer rate also improved a lot throughout the years. The newer generation USB ports allowed higher limits for data transfer, thus allowing the usb flash drives to be updated with newer technologies that had a higher data transfer rate than before. From around 1.5MB/s using USB 1.1, they improved to around 530MB/s using USB 3.1.
USB Flash Drives are still being used a log today, even though its popularity decreased these past years. Cloud storage is becoming more popular, allowing people to access their files wherever they are, as long as they have access to a computer with an internet connection.
But, for many people USB Flash Drives are still the best option to store and keep their files safe.