USB flash drives are basically common household items these days. They’re so common that a lot of people just refer to them as “USB”. If you have a file that you need to make a copy of, the question “Have you got a USB?” is often heard. But USB stands for Universal Serial Bus – a technology that allows connection of all sorts of devices, not just flash drives.

If we looked at USB as a family, then the grandfather would be USB 1.0, which in 1998 was updated to USB 1.1. This technology slowly took the place of PS/2 ports on PC computers, and also made it more viable to push larger amounts of information to printers. The human interaction devices like the keyboard and mouse soon started to ship with USB connectors. In 1998, Apple introduced exclusive use of USB ports on their iMac. According to Wikipedia, this pushed the technology into the marketplace like never before.

USB devices have some unique features. Did you know one USB controller can have 127 devices attached to it? You could accomplish this by daisy chaining several USB hubs to one another, until you had 127 devices attached to a single port on the host computer. (Whether or not the motherboard would provide enough power to the USB ports to actually have the devices operational is another story!)

USB technology relies on pipes to relay information between the peripheral device (like a flash drive) and the host computer. These pipes are one way avenues for information, with 16 going to the host and 16 coming from the controller. Without getting too technical, the pipes are constantly asking the host controller if any information needs to be pushed through. Each USB device has to be installed by a driver when the computer is on.

With the launch of USB 2.0 in late 2001, the Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI), which regulates the technology behind USB, standardized controllers further. We now all enjoy USB flash drives which are simply plug and play.

USB 3.0 should come to the market within a year and all the old USB devices will still be backwards compatible, meaning you will still be able to attach a USB 2.0 device to a USB 3.0 port on a new computer.

Just like other devices, USB flash drives have benefited by the advances in USB technology. With every version they have increased the speed giving flash drive manufacturers more scope to push the speed of data transfers.

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