USB memory stick

Computing device, also known as pen drive or flash drive, which combines a flash memory card with a USB interface to enable compatibity with both PC and Mac personal computers. It was first introduced in 2000, and several companies claimed to have invented the device. Use of the USB memory stick has overtaken the use of floppy disks as the preferred way of transferring data from one computer to another. Indeed, USB memory sticks have become so popular that the floppy disk drive has become virtually redundant in most computers.

The original USB memory sticks had a memory capacity of 8MB; by 2007 they had become much smaller in size and the memory capacity had increased to 16GB. In addition to the usual pen drive format, USB memory sticks are available as wrist bands as well as novelty designs such as plastic toys.

The original USB memory sticks were supplied with USB drivers on a CD-ROM. However, support for these devices is now built into Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems, and therefore additional drivers are not required. USB memory sticks use a form of memory known as Flash memory. Flash memory can be erased and reprogrammed electrically and does not lose its contents when power is removed. In theory this type of memory supports a limited number of read-write cycles (many are guaranteed for 100,000 cycles), but with error checking and other techniques built-in, most devices will suffer mechanical damage long before they fail electronically.