Current and Future Developments
Semiconductor corporations have worked to reduce the cost of the components in a flash drive by integrating various flash drive functions in a single chip, thereby reducing the part-count and overall package-cost.
Flash drive capacities on the market increase continually. As of 2010, few manufacturers continue to produce models of 1 GB and smaller, and many have started to phase out 2 GB capacity flash memory. High speed has become a standard for modern flash drives. Capacities of up to 256 GB have come on the market, as of 2009.
Lexar is attempting to introduce a USB FlashCard, which would be a compact USB flash drive intended to replace various kinds of flash memory cards. Pretec introduced a similar card, which also plugs into any USB port, but is just one quarter the thickness of the Lexar model. Until 2008, SanDisk manufactured a product called SD Plus, which was a SecureDigital card with a USB connector.
SanDisk has also introduced a new technology to allow controlled storage and usage of copyrighted materials on flash drives, primarily for use by students. This technology is termed FlashCP.
Read more about this topic: USB Flash Drive
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