Importance & Effectiveness of Flash Drives
Flash drives are also called "solid-state drives" or "SSDs." They are compact data storage devices that require no internal power source, can be plugged in to a computer while it is powered on and contain no moving parts.
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Solid State
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In the early years of electronics, glass tubes that contained a vacuum or gas were used in devices. Later, semi-conductors were found that could function in a similar manner but used much less space and power. Because the functional parts of these components were solid, instead of gaseous, they were referred to as "solid-state." Similarly, flash drives contain no moving part and are differentiated from spindle-based technology. The hard drive of most computers, from the 1980s through 2010, consisted of several disks coated with magnetic particles. In order for information to be read from or written to these disks, the disks would spin rapidly to bring the relevant areas of the disks to the read/write head of the drive. Such a design is too complicated and fragile for portable media, as of 2010.
Capabilities
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The typical flash drive can store between two and 200 gigabytes, weighs less than an ounce and is about 60 to 70 millimeters in length. The smallest capacity drives cost under $5, as of 2010, though the "largest" may cost more than $100. Note that the physical size of these devices is no indication of their storage capacity. To use them, simply plug them into a free USB slot on a laptop or desktop computer, or one of the many devices capable of interfacing with them. USB is a "hot-pluggable" format, meaning that the device may be powered on when plugging or unplugging the drive. As of 2010, virtually all computers are equipped with the hardware and operating systems to use flash drives.
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Performance
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Flash drives transmit and receive data quite quickly for such small devices. Less expensive models underperform the best, but typical read speed is about 30 million bytes per second. This is considerably faster than most external CD-ROM drives and at a small fraction of the cost. The superiority in speed is a result of the absence of moving parts, though the very best external drives, both magnetic and optical, can exceed most flash drives in speed.
Disadvantages
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Users can tend to lose or forget the small devices. This can be inconvenient for students or expensive for business people. It can be even worse for people handling sensitive data belonging to the government, law enforcement or corporate research divisions. Flash drives are durable, by the standards set by most electronic equipment, but if you should leave one baking on your car's dash on a hot summer day or forget one in your pants pocket on wash day, you may find your data irretrievably lost.
Future
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Technology companies are scaling up the technology used in memory sticks to be used as the primary hard drive of computers. Already, laptops containing flash-based hard drives are on the market and present several advantages. They boast greater durability, battery life and improved boot-up time. Flash technology also holds promise for large-scale data storage. Server farms that now use spindle-based technology use about a quarter of their power on cooling. Cooler-running SSDs could mean large energy savings.
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References
- Photo Credit usb flash drive image by NatUlrich from Fotolia.com
