The Memory Chips

The key part in any USB stick is of coursework the flash memory chip. These chips have the acronym EEPROM, which stands for electrically, erasable, programmable, read-only memory. As with all solid-state expertise, the chips are comparatively immune from damage by shock or vibration due to the shortage of moving parts.

The chips come in a range of grades in respect of read, write speeds & knowledge retention capabilities, & can be present in digital cameras & mobile rings as well as USB sticks. In addition, with their non-volatile nature, knowledge retention is not reliant on a constant power supply. Other highlights include fast access times & low power consumption on a chip that on average lasts for close to 100,000 write cycles.

Quality is obviously an issue & Flash chips fall in to basic categories:

• Original Branded Chips - Made by the leading well-known global producers & tested to high quality standards. These chips come with a full warranty, a one-of-a-kind serial number & are highly reliable.
• OEM Chips - A reduced but equally reliable version of the above but without the branding or warranties.
• Downgraded Chips - Rejects from the main manufacturer's QA method bought by third parties. A less expensive option but with a higher failure rate.
• Fake Chips - Low capacity chips, often of a downgraded variety, reprogrammed to document much higher memory capability, even when connected to a computer, & sold as such.

Flash chips fall in to the "solid state" section of computer expertise & their applications share various advantages over normal hard drives that have numerous moving parts. With platters, spindles, & read & write heads constantly moving around, magnetic hard drives are susceptible to knocks, vibrations, & magnetic fields amongst other things. Solid-state devices also require little power, & coupled with the shortage of moving parts leads to negligible heat generation.

Apart from being usually more robust & energy-efficient than magnetic disk drives, a solid state device will also perform better in some areas in terms of speed. With faster start-up, access, & application launch times they are quickly replacing traditional disk-based hard drives, in the light of regular memory increases that are now impressive.

For such a little piece of electronic hardware, the Flash chip is a powerhouse that has revolutionized the way knowledge is stored & transported. With constant development & increases in memory capacity, future advances could be limitless.