U3 Technology
The drive's memory consists of NAND memory and manufactured by a supplier of Memorex. Integrated is the USB controller, also manufactured by the supplier. Aside from these normal components, this drive also has a new technology added, U3. I did some research and was able to find this on the internet.
"U3 LLC. is a joint venture that is backed by SanDisk and M-Systems. U3 is responsible for the development of a proprietary application design specification created for Microsoft Windows operating systems so that applications can be executed directly from a specially formatted USB flash drive. Applications are allowed to write files or registry information to the host computer, but this information must be removed when the flash drive is ejected.""USB flash drives adhering to the U3 specification are termed "U3 smart drives" by U3.com. "U3 smart drives" differ from traditional USB flash drives because they come preinstalled with the U3 Launchpad, which emulates the Windows OS start menu, and controls program installation."
This exurb of information pretty much sums it all up, the theory at least. Notice the last line of the first paragraph: "Applications are allowed to write files or registry information to the host computer, but this information must be removed when the flash drive is ejected." This is crucial in terms of how it works. It does still use your computer to write some information but it has to clean up afterwards. To do that correctly you have to use the Launchpad and choose to eject the drive. When the eject command is giving, all applications clean up after themselves and you are able to remove the drive.
Of course not every application needs to write to your computer. All of the application data itself is stored on the drive and accessed there and simply interacts with the operating system. U3.com has a big store where you can browse and find software to add to your flash drive. Some of the software is free; others are trial versions and most packages you have to buy to be able to install it.
To give you an idea of how it works, we've borrowed a marvelous presentation made by U3 themselves. It clearly demonstrates the real power of U3 and its application of it. This demo can be viewed when you enter the homepage of U3 and this is simply a link to that same demo.
If you would like to read about USB drives in general or about the components themselves you can use the links I have used to research this information. Check out the links below to find the information.
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