BRIEF HISTORY OF USB FLASH DRIVE

A USB flash drive (be) ___ a data storage device that (include)______________ flash
memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface. USB flash drives (be)________
typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than an optical disc. Most
(weigh) ____________ less than 30 grams (1.1 oz). As of January 2013, drives of up to
512 gigabytes (GB) (be)_________ available

Prior to USB drives, it (be) _______ difficult and inconvenient to move large amounts of data
from place to place. CD-writing technology (be) ______ almost unavailable on personal
computers until the late 1990s; the largest commonly-available portable storage media
(be)_______ floppy disks that (can)______ at best hold 1.44 megabytes.
USB 1.0 was introduced in 1995 by a working group of computer companies including Intel,
Compaq, Microsoft and IBM. They (intend) ____________to standardize the numerous
specialized connectors that PCs (have) __________ at the time and to develop a basic device-
connection protocol. The first USB product (be) ____________ released in 1996, and by 1998
the standard (be) ________ widely adopted. In 2000 the USB 2.0 standard (be) _______
released. The second generation of USB (have)_______ a much faster data-transfer speed.
The USB 2.0 hardware standard was announced in 2000, although it wasn't commonly available
until 2003. It had a significantly faster data transfer speed, about 30 times what USB 1.0 could
do (about 30 MB/second, as opposed to 1 MB/second on USB 1.0).
USB flash drives had already been increasing steadily in capacity. Faster transfer speeds only
encouraged that expansion. The first 1-gigabyte USB flash drives became available in 2004.
Some USB 3.0 consumer products were made available in 2010, however, full implementation
of the super speed version is still in the works. Mainstream use (may) ______ not occur until
next year. Motherboards and peripherals (test)____________ for further universal compatibility.
The delay of USB 3.0 may also be due to Intels CMOS manufacturing. USB 3.0 Windows
drivers are also still in development. Therefore, wide consumer adoption may not occur until its
well integrated into the major operating systems.
Read more : http://www.ehow.com/about_5152489_history-usb-flash-drives.html & http://www.allusb.com/usb-
history