What is Flash Memory?
What are USB Flash Drives?

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Why use flash memory?
Flash memory has many advantages over other digital media such as CD, DVD, tape or diskette while retaining most of those formats' benefits.

Flash Memory is Reusable
Unlike CD-ROM, flash memory drives are sturdy and reusable. Their toughness, already legendary (see "Durability," below), is matched only by the ease with which their content can be changed: simply plug the flash drive into a usb port. Drives can be rewritten thousands of times. This reusability easily makes up for the difference in cost between flash memory and other media.

Titles can be mass or individually duplicated
Though they sound specialized, flash memory drives can be mass-duplicated just like any other media. Information can also be duplicated as needed, one at a time. This flexibility makes available any number of scenarios for the large and small scale duplication of titles.

Widely available, mature technology
Flash memory is by no means a new technology. It came into widespread use more than ten years ago and can now be found in nearly every electronic device, from microwave ovens to televisions and automobiles. It is the recent precipitous drop in prices, driven by the popularity of digital cameras and portable digital audio players, that has made the use of flash memory economical.

Multiple sources
Flash memory's widespread use and high demand have spurred many manufacturers of integrated circuits to begin producing flash memory. Well-known names such as Intel, Samsung, and Toshiba are continuing to add to their manufacturing capacity, competing with flash-memory specialists like Lexar, SanDisk, and others, resulting in an abundance of inexpensive parts.

Flash memory is clearly the right medium for new distribution. An adaptable technology, it is available in many different formats. Of those, only one is ideal for use, the USB Flash Drive.

What is a USB Flash Drive?
A USB Flash Drive is a piece of rewritable, nonvolatile memory that can be inserted into and removed from an electronic device. Like the familiar computer floppy disk, files can be transferred to or from it. And like a floppy disk (and unlike the memory found in a computer), the data on a USB Flash Drive remain intact even when power is removed from the device. It attaches, physically and electrically, via a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector, which can be found on any computer built since 1997.

There are five components making up a USB Flash Drive: a USB connector, a controller chip, a flash memory chip, a small printed circuit board (PCB) holding these three components in place, and a plastic shell to hold and protect the PCB.

The USB connector contains the electrical connections needed to communicate with the memory on the drive. The flash memory chip holds the data itself, which is really a set of specially formatted files. The controller chip controls the communication between the computer and the memory. The PCB and shell are there to connect and protect the electronic components.

Why USB Flash Drives?
One of the reasons for flash memory's success as a storage product is its availability in standardized formats. Because of this, a digital camera owner can buy any flash memory card that follows the flash memory standard used by his camera.

But of the available flash memory card standards, only one is appropriate for use by blind and physically handicapped individuals: the USB Flash Drive. That is because it is the only standard that does not specify a physical format for the card. Instead, it is standardized only by the characteristics of its connector. All of the other formats are too small to be handled easily by blind or physically handicapped users, and they do not include sufficient surface area to affix a braille label. The USB Flash Drive can be built to any size and shape as long as it has the right connector.

Customization does not come at great expense, because the internals and connector of the drive, where most of the costs lie, are standard and widely produced.

Technology independence
Another useful property of the USB Flash Drive is the measure of technology independence it provides. Because the drive connects using a standard interface and protocol, the memory technology contained in the drive can change without the need for any changes to the computer.

By including a controller chip on the USB Flash Drive (see "What is a USB Flash Drive?" above), users can implement write-protection so that drives cannot be accidentally erased by patrons.