Flash drive

Short description: Computer storage device

An assortment of flash drives

Transcend JetFlash from 2014

A flash drive is a portable computer drive that uses flash memory. Flash drives are the larger memory modules consisting of a number of flash chips. A flash chip is used to read the contents of a single cell, but it can write an entire block of cells. They connect to a USB port and function as a folder. They can also be encrypted for extra security.

Specific flash drive types

Memory cards:

• Flash memory-based CompactFlash (CF) card (including CFast card) and XQD card (Note: some other types of CF and XQD card are not flash memory-based)
• Memory Stick (MS)
• MultiMediaCard (MMC)
• Secure Digital card (SD, SDHC, SDXC)
• SmartMedia card (SM)
• xD-Picture Card (xD)

Other:

• Solid-state drive, SSD, using flash memory (a few SSDs use DRAM or MRAM)
• USB flash drive (UFD)

See also

• Flash memory
• Comparison of memory cards