History of Computers - The Flash Drive
By Ben Lee
First produced by IBM in 2000 storing 8MB,[1] flash drives provided a durable, high capacity alternative to floppy disks and compact discs. Over the years the flash drive has evolved, offering a capacity of over one quarter of a terabyte and faster transfer rates. USB's nowadays can have upwards of 32GB. [2]
Overview
Created by Don Moran in 1998, the flash drive is merely a memory chip and a USB plug making it a small reusable storage device.[3] Its memory capacity has grown exponentially since its creation and is now a cheap storage alternative to CDs and floppy discs. Recently flash drives have been used in the same way as DVDs: as a movie storage device. Flash drives can also be decoratively covered to look like almost anything, making them aesthetically pleasing.
How It Works
Flash memory works by measuring the values (0 or 1) of various electrical “cells” in sequence. An electrical ceil contains a control gate and a floating gate with electrons in them. If the number of electrons in the control gate is above 50% of the number of electrons in the control gate then the gate reads as 1. Otherwise, the gate has a value of zero. The flow of electrons is controlled by an oxide layer between the two gates [4]. The summation of many of these cells allows for flash memory to store binary code even when powered down.
Significance
Flash drives offer a significantly larger storage capacity than either CDs of floppy disks. The largest flash drive currently is made by Kingston, and can hold two terabytes [5]. Also, even though it can hold more than CDs, flash drives can transfer files faster than CDs can burn or rip them. Overall, flash drives store more and are faster than previous methods of removable storage, and they allows their users to put all their files on one extremely durable flash drive instead of on multiple scratchable and breakable disks. Flash Drives are also very portable making it easy to transfer data from one place to another.
References
- ↑ http://www.supermediastore.com/article/u/usb-flash-drive-memory-jump-drive-history-of-usb-flash-drives
- ↑ http://www.pcworld.com/article/168802/worlds_biggest_flash_drive_comes_at_a_price.html
- ↑ http://www.funntech.com/inventions/who-invented-the-usb-flash-drive
- ↑ http://computer.howstuffworks.com/flash-memory1.htm
- ↑ https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/1/3/14158838/kingston-datatraveler-ultimate-gt-worlds-largest-flash-drive-2tb
