First off a big thanks to EasyDisk, DiskonKey, and USBDrive for providing samples so this roundup could happen.
Everyone needs portable storage. But the choices we have are antiquated and not convenient. Most computers have floppy drives but their capacities are often not enough; CDRW drives are in no shortage, but they are sometimes a pain to create and might not be accessible on some computers; and Zip drives are few and far between. What should be used than? What if you were to combine a compact source of memory with a standard interface found on most computers? You would get a USB drive. Its small, portable, and has the potential for large storage space. This market niche has a few major players and we have gotten samples from three of them: M System’s DiskonKey, EasyDisk’s EasyDisk, and JMTek’s USBDrive.
Why flash memory? There are many benefits such as its smaller size and weight, and has no moving parts, so it’s the ideal type of memory for this type of application. The only disadvantage here is the cost of memory. Fear not because the prices have fallen a bit. However, when connected through a USB port, it becomes a hot swappable drive and has the benefit of good drive speed, as we will see later on. But, there is an inherit limitation in the USB 1.1 bus. Since there is a maximum data rate of twelve megabits per second that is shared between all devices (all 127 devices), and the maximum each device can use is six megabits, you cannot have more than two devices operating at full bandwidth. So if a USB device is in use, it will eat up bandwidth from the drive, and lower performance. We will experiment with the effects later. Last but not least, these drives can operate within many different operating system environments that support USB, except Windows 98/SE that requires a driver.
| • Capacity: 16MB/32MB/64MB/128MB/256MB/512MB • Operating System: Windows 98/SE/ME/2000/XP, Mac OS 9.0 or higher • Dimensions: LxWxH: 81mm x 23mm x 12.5mm • Reading speed: 950KB/S (3MB/S with Windows cache) • Writing speed: 600KB/S (2MB/S with Windows cache) • Interface: Universal Serial Bus 1.0/1.1 (USB 1.0/1.1) • Operating Temp: -40° C to +70° C • Storage Temp: -50° C to +85° C • Weight: 15g | |
| • Capacity: 16MB/32MB/64MB/128MB/256MB • Operating System: Windows 98/SE/ME/2000/XP, Mac OS 9.0, Linux 2.4.0 • Dimensions: LxWxH: 981mm x 253mm x 184mm • Reading speed: 1MB/S • Writing speed: 1MB/S • Interface: Universal Serial Bus 1.0/1.1 (USB 1.0/1.1) • Operating Temp: 0° C to +45° C • Storage Temp: -20° C to +60° C • Weight: 20g | |
| • Capacity: 16MB/32MB/64MB/128MB/256MB/512MB/1GB/2GB • Operating System: Windows 98/SE/ME/2000/XP, Mac OS 9.0-10.1, Linux 2.4 • Dimensions: LxWxH: 67mm x 20mm x 9mm • Reading speed: 1MB/S - 800KB/S • Writing speed: 1MB/S - 800KB/S • Interface: Universal Serial Bus 1.0/1.1 (USB 1.0/1.1) • Operating Temp: 0° C to +45° C • Storage Temp: -20° C to +80° C • Weight: 25g |
For full specifications, please see the respective websites. These images are to scale with each other so that size comparisons can be made.
