From floppy to flash

Until USB flash drives came along, the phrase “plug ‘n’ play” was sheer exaggeration when it came to setting up and using a computer or some peripheral hardware. When flash drives hit the retail market in 2000, the 8MB storage units epitomized the ability to plug and play—enabling users to connect and access whatever data the drive contained, pretty much instantly.

That’s a far cry from the storage devices they replaced—floppy disks. Remember those 8", 5¼" and 3½" disks that ruled the storage realm for nearly 30 years? Once you inserted them, there was a bit of a waiting period while the disk drive made all sorts of noise. You might still have a few 3½" disks laying around because they’ve only been obsolete for a few years. Heck, you might still use some of the 3½" disks if you have an older computer.

Floppy disks such as the 8”, 5¼” and 3½” ruled the storage realm for 30 years before giving way to USB flash drives, such as the Kingston Data Data Traveler 101 32GB model. Image courtesy Kingston Technology Inc.

Considering that DVDs and CDs take time to burn and don’t easily fit into your pocket, flash drives would seem to be the portable storage device of choice. Particularly since they’ve become so affordable—you can pick up a flash drive with 8GB of storage capacity for about $20. Double that capacity, and the cost creeps up to about $60.

Eight or 9 years ago, you might have paid more than $150 for a 256MB USB flash drive.

Now, you can get a Kingston Technology USB flash drive with 256GB capacity, but then that’s more storage than I had built into my last computer. While I cannot imagine having to carry around that much storage capacity, it sure makes one wonder how long before we hear about the first 1 terabyte (TB) flash drive.

Plus, in another year, a whole new generation will begin to take over when the USB 3.0 standard rolls out with a data transfer rate 10 times that of current USB 2.0 flash drives, which transfers data at about 60MB/sec.

Look for USB 3.0 flash drive storage capacities to grow, become more affordable and physically get smaller, said Jyh Chau, senior product marketing manager at flash drive maker Lexar Media, Fremont, Calif. Mainstream adoption of USB 3.0 flash drives isn’t likely before 2012, he added.

Even the companies driving the flash drive evolution find the pace a bit surprising. When Kingston Technology, Fountain Valley, Calif., began to produce USB flash drives in earnest in 2004, most existing units were still measured in terms of MB. Just 3 years later, 8GB flash drives were selling for well over $100. Now 8GB flash drives are under $20, noted Andrew Ewing, Kingston’s USB business manager.

“You look at that evolution,” he said, “and it is just unbelievable how quickly this stuff changes.”

Just a decade ago, noted Lexar’s Chau, dynamic random access memory in computers was at 128MB. Today it’s up to 4GB on PCs.

While computer memory has grown about 32 times what it was in 2000, Chau said, USB flash-drive capacity has increased “a whopping 512 times, from 8MB to 4GB.” And it would be even more if compared to the more expensive drives available today, he added.

Of course, to actually see the changes taking place, you’d have to look inside these devices—at the printed circuit board and the NAND flash memory chip to see any difference. While the outside hasn’t changed a whole lot, obviously the amount of data you can store inside has grown exponentially.

“When USB drives were introduced, they were a solution to the floppy disk problem,” Ewing observed. “You really just used it as a way to store files. Now that people have MP3 players and other media devices, and file sizes have continued to grow, they now need more space on these portable devices for videos and songs.”

One trend over the past 2 years has been the growing interest in loading data or software onto USB flash drives. Loading portable applications, said Ewing, “helps improve the functionality of a USB drive. You can get a portable Internet browser on there that you can use on any computer.”

There’s also increasing demand—especially from the government and health-care markets—for USB flash drives with encryption capabilities and password protection.

“Incorporation of new value-added features and services into USB flash drives, such as creative industrial designs and form factors, will help keep customer interest sufficiently ignited,” suggested Global Industry Analysts Inc. (GIA), a San Jose, Calif., market research firm.

No matter what content is loaded onto these devices, coming up with a faster way to load that content onto the drives could prove lucrative for micromanufacturers, given that GIA recently estimated the global USB flash drive market could reach $500 billion by the year 2015.

Now that is no floppy market. µ

About the author: Dennis Spaeth is electronic media editor for MICROmanufacturing and Cutting Tool Engineering. Phone: (847) 714-0176. E-mail: dspaeth@jwr.com.