Which country invented the USB flash drive?

U disk was invented in China, and Netac is the global inventor of U disk. In July 2002, Netac's "Fast Lightning External Storage Method and Device for Data Processing Systems" was officially authorized by the State Intellectual Property Office. This patent filled the 20-year gap in invention patents in the field of computer storage in China; 2004 On December 7, 2019, Netac received the basic invention patent for flash disks officially authorized by the U.S. National Patent Office.

The operating environment of this tutorial: Windows 7 system, Dell G3 computer.

U disk was invented in China.

Since 1998~2000, many companies have claimed to be the first to invent the USB flash drive. Including China's Netac Technology, Israel's M-Systems and Singapore's Trek. But it was China Netac that actually obtained the basic invention patent for USB flash drives.

In July 2002, Netac's "Fast Lightning External Storage Method and Device for Data Processing Systems" (Patent No.: ZL 99 1 17225.7) was officially authorized by the State Intellectual Property Office. This patent It fills the gap in invention patents in the field of computer storage in China in the past 20 years.

The acquisition of this patent caused great shock in the entire storage industry, including Israel's M-Systems, which immediately filed an invalidation review with the State Intellectual Property Office of China. It once became a patent dispute that shocked both China and foreign countries in the global flash memory field. .

But on December 7, 2004, Netac obtained the basic invention patent for flash disks officially authorized by the U.S. National Patent Office, U.S. Patent No. US6829672. The acquisition of this patent finally ended the competition. China Netac is the world's first inventor of USB flash drives.

On February 10, 2006, U.S. time, Netac entrusted Morgan Lewis Law Firm to submit a complaint to the Federal Court of the Eastern District of Texas, accusing the U.S. company PNY of infringing Netac's U.S. patents.

In February 2008, Netac and PNY reached an out-of-court settlement. Netac signed a patent licensing agreement with PNY, and PNY paid a patent licensing fee of US$10 million to Netac.

This is the first time that a Chinese company has received huge patent licensing fees in the United States, and it further proves that Netac is the global inventor of USB flash drives.

#U disk is the abbreviation of USB disk, and according to the homonym, it is also called USB disk. A USB flash drive is a type of flash memory, so it is sometimes called a flash drive. The biggest difference between a USB flash drive and a hard disk is that it does not require a physical drive and is plug-and-play. Its storage capacity far exceeds that of a floppy disk, making it extremely easy to carry.

#U disk integrates disk storage technology, flash memory technology and universal serial bus technology. The USB port is connected to the computer and is the channel for data input/output; the main control chip enables the computer to recognize the U disk as a removable disk and is the brain of the U disk; the U disk Flash (flash memory) chip saves data and is different from the computer's memory. Data will not be lost even after a power outage; the PCB backplane connects the components together and provides a platform for data processing.

Function classification

The main purpose of U disk is to store data. Through the efforts of enthusiasts and merchants, U disk More functions have been developed: encrypted USB disk, bootable USB disk, anti-virus USB disk, temperature measuring USB disk, music USB disk, etc.

Driveless type

Driverless products can be used normally under Windows 98/Me/2000/XP and Linux, Mac OS and other systems that support the USB Mass Storage protocol, and only need to install the driver under Windows 98 systems. In operating systems above Windows Me There is no need to install a driver to be correctly recognized and used by the system, which truly embodies the convenience of "plug and play" USB devices. Most U disks on the market are driverless, so users have a lot of choice. U disks from Patriot, Lenovo, Jinbang, Netac and other companies are good choices.

Encrypted

In addition to encrypting the stored content, the encrypted USB flash drive can also be used as an ordinary USB flash drive. There are roughly two types: one is hardware encryption, such as fingerprint recognition encrypted USB flash drives. This type of USB flash drive is more expensive and is aimed at users in special departments. Generally speaking, hardware encryption is more secure; the other is It is software encryption. Software encryption can specially divide a hidden partition (encrypted partition) in the USB flash drive to store the files to be encrypted, or it can only encrypt a single file without dividing the partition. The encrypted partition or the encrypted single file cannot be opened without a password. , thereby maintaining confidentiality.

Startup type

The emergence of bootable USB flash drives has made people look at this portable product with admiration. As the name suggests, the bootable USB flash drive adds the function of booting the system, making up for the shortcomings of encrypted and driverless USB flash drives that cannot boot the system. It is the emergence of this product that accelerated the process of floppy drives being eliminated. To boot the system, the USB flash drive must simulate a USB peripheral. For example, bootable U disks on the market mainly rely on simulating the USB_HDD method to achieve system booting. There is an advantage to booting the system by simulating the USB_HDD method: after the system starts, the U disk is recognized as a hard disk, and the user can maximize the use of the U disk space. This also fully reflects the large capacity characteristics of U disk. In addition to being used in desktop computers, this USB flash drive with multi-boot function can also be widely used in laptops with external USB floppy drives. With this kind of USB flash drive, laptops can completely eliminate floppy drives or even optical drives. .

Advantages

1. The use of USB flash drive is very simple and convenient

There are many USB flash drive interfaces Well, strictly speaking, only flash drives with USB interfaces can be called U disks. This means that most modern operating systems can read and write to flash drives without the need to install additional drivers.

The U disk is displayed as a block-like logical unit in the operating system, hiding the complex details required by the internal flash memory. The operating system can use any file system or block addressing method. You can also make a bootable USB flash drive to boot the computer. Current operating systems such as Linux, MacOSX, Unix, Windows 2000, XP, and win7 all have built-in support.

When in use, no driver is required, no external power supply, plug and play, plug and unplug when powered. After connecting to the computer host through the USB interface, you can format, copy, delete and other operations on it like an ordinary hard disk. The data on the USB flash drive can be transferred to the computer, and the data on the computer can also be easily transferred to the USB flash drive. Can be removed or attached at any time. Portable mobile storage is realized. The access speed is fast (about 15 times the speed of floppy disk).

2. The biggest feature of U disk is that it is small and easy to carry.

General U disk capacities include 1G, 2G, 4G, 8G, 16G, etc., and floppy disks, CDs -Compared with traditional storage devices such as RW and Zip disks, "USB drives" have very obvious advantages. The main features are: very small size (only about the size of a thumb) and weight of only about 20 grams; large capacity (8MB~256MB, even up to 2GB); can be used to store photos, information, and images, with an area of ​​only 1 cm square and easy to carry Convenient and suitable for wireless computing fields and mobile offices, it greatly improves efficiency and makes human life more convenient.

3. U disk has good security

It will hardly allow water or dust to penetrate, nor will it be scratched, which are difficult to achieve in the old portable storage Equipment (such as CDs, floppy disks), etc. are serious problems. The solid-state storage design used in flash drives makes them resistant to inadvertent external impacts. These advantages make flash drives ideal for carrying personal data or work files from one place to another, such as from home to school or the office, or generally to various locations where personal data needs to be carried and accessed. . Since USB is almost ubiquitous in today's personal computers, flash drives can be used everywhere. However, the small size of flash drives also means that they are often misplaced, forgotten or lost.

4. Large storage capacity

Although the flash drive is small, it has a relatively large storage capacity. Most USB flash drives can store more data than a CD (700MB), and advanced ones can store more data than a double-sided double-layer DVD (17GB).

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