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Flash Drives Go To Work

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the teeny-but-big dept.

feminazi writes "USB drive capacity is outpacing Moore's Law by doubling every year, evolving from tchotchkes to devices capable of addressing corporate needs ranging from mobile computing platforms to files stores with encryption and biometrics protection. SanDisk and M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers launched a thumb drive with an intelligent U3 chip that can store and launch applications. Lexar's premium JumpDrive Lightning thumb drive has the fastest data-transfer rates at 18MB/sec write and 24MB/sec read. And some are strong on the outside, too. SanDisk touts a drive built to withstand 2,000 lbs. of pressure. Computerworld tested that claim by repeatedly driving a Volkswagen Beetle over the ruggedized thumb drive. While the drive's body came away with a few scratches, there were no dents, and not a single lost file."

12 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Beetle by 42Penguins · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure you can drive a Beetle over it, but so you know the bandwidth of a Beetle full of thumbdrives on the highway?

    1. Re:Beetle by jamie · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's an old joke. Not even a joke. More sort of a thing that some computer programmers say sometimes and nod wisely to make their point.

    2. Re:Beetle by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's a joke based on an old measure of bandwidth- from back in the day when modems were so slow that the fastest way to transfer a megabyte from LA to San Francisco was to load a station wagon with tapes and drive there.

      Given a rough guess of 30,000 thumb drives, at 4GB per, on an 8 hour drive, you get 4GB/sec, give or take a GB, as the bandwith of a Beetle full of thumb drives.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    3. Re:Beetle by Scaba · · Score: 5, Funny

      From TFA:

      Computerworld tested that claim by repeatedly driving an employee's car over the ruggedized thumb drive. While the drive's body came away with a few scratches, there were no dents, and we didn't lose a single file.

      The article doesn't go on to mention how they then put the thumb drive in the employees car, set the car on fire and pushed it over a cliff. Miraculously, the thumb drive survived! Boy, was that guy pissed when he found out what they did to his car...

  2. Comdex 2000 by boristdog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I first saw these at Comdex 2000, I thought "These things will replace all removable media someday."

    Looks like they'll do even more.

  3. Standard Flash Drive Durability by GeffDE · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's a great feature that SanDisk has a flash drive that can be driven over. However, I can't think of the number of times I have forgotten those little buggers in my pockets when they've gone in the wash and the number of time they've come out and still worked perfectly normally. I have got to say, in a day and age when things break if you look at them wrong, it's great that we have invented the 21st century's response to the swiss army knife.

    --
    It has been a nervous year, with people beginning to feel like Christian Scientists with appendicitis.
  4. Running over with car not 2000 pounds of pressure by steven94585 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Running the drive over with a car is at most going to be only 20-40 psi(pounds per square inche), the tire pressure. Maybe if the whole car was balanced on one wheel and then drove over it.

  5. God, I hate that U3 chip. by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    On some drives, like the ones my college bookstore carries, you can't access the writable portion of the drive until after the U3 software is loaded into Windows. Hell, I couldn't even get past it using my Linux laptop.

    And the U3 software fails on virtually every computer on campus, because the computers are locked down in such a way that one cannot install device drivers using a normal student account.

    The real kicker? They're replacing all the PCs in the campus labs with ones without floppy drives. So even those poor kids with only a few hundred KB of data will have to use a flash drive, and us student assistants will have to support them.

    Already, I've had to tell too many students that yes, they can access their data from home with that flash drive. No, they won't be able to use that flash drive here. Yes, I realize their assignment is due in twenty minutes. No, there's nothing I can do about it; I don't have any greater a degree of access than they do.

    --
    tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
  6. GP is correct by LunaticTippy · · Score: 5, Informative
    so if i ride over something on my bike (50psi in the tyres) I'll be exerting more pressure ?
    Yep. Think about it.

    If a unicycle tire is at 50 psi with 100 lbs on it then there has to be 2 square inches touching the road, assuming the tire is flexible. A rigid tire could have less area in contact, but tires are flexible.

    If you still don't understand, try googling or take a look at how to weigh a car by measuring surface area here

    Oh, and a 100 lb woman in stiletto heels can exert over 1000 psi if she balances on her heel. We're talking about weight per unit area. Even though it is counterintuitive, you will exert more force per unit area on your bike than a bigrig full of i-beams, assuming you have higher pressure tires.
    --
    Man, you really need that seminar!
  7. Does Moore's "law" even apply here? by Inverted+Intellect · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Moore's famous "law", previously a handy rough predictor for the maximum obtainable complexity of ICs (integrated circuits, e.g. CPUs) is often unappropriately applied to fields which it has nothing to do with, e.g. the maximum capacity of HDDs. Does it apply in this case?

  8. For those that missed it, and need speed by RootWind · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is Anandtech's last year USB Flash Drive Roundup: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2549&p=3
    It seems to be still relevant almost a year later. No faster models have come out from any of the major brands that I am aware of.

  9. New File Compression Scheme by pkiesel · · Score: 5, Funny

    No word on how much compression was achieved by driving the Beetle over it? A rather inefficient method in any case.