The history of Printed USBs

How much do you think we can each remember from our average days work? Can we even remember the work from last week? A USB is a special device to keep our work in order and keep us on track. A USB, is a device that stores work off the computer, which can transported by this small device from place to place, to exchange data onto your computer at home or bring work, into the office from home.

The USB, also known as a 'Universal Serial Bus' is easily removed from a computer and uploaded to transfer work efficiently. Before the USB, the 'floppy disc' was used, data was put onto these discs and put into another machines to hold and transport work. The earliest 'floppy discs', were developed in the 1960's. They created large amounts of different kinds of 'floppy discs' and in 1996 there was approximately five billion of these 'floppy discs' in use all over the world.

A CD-ROM however, was another similar device only, in the form of a compact disk. A CD-ROM or otherwise known as 'Compact Disc Read Only Memory' is used to transfer other forms of data including, music and video games on to a computer. However, you could not re-write a CD-ROM as it was only used for accessing what was already on the disc itself.

However, it was said, the USB drives were invented by a series of people, including a man named Amir Ban and two other colleagues. They were all workers for the Israeli company M-systems, who presented the devices in the U.S in 1999. However, a company in Singapore, named Trek technology introduced the USB as 'Thumb drive' and sold millions in all over the world. This was a new and creative data share device, which could hold five times the capacity of the 'floppy disc'.

To insert these USB device, you have to have a special USB connection inserters on your computer. Its said that, all up to date computers will have more than one USB connection slot. Incredibly, these small devices are used for complete control and security of personal data. The USB can be used to 'back-up' the computer, in other words, to take all important data and store it on the storage device. This process was used in case of a problem with the computer, or so one person could carry around this device easily, instead of leaving the data on a computer for everyone to access.

By 2005, there were various different names for these devices, depending on which company and manufacturers they were being made and sold from. We even have different names for these within the TM office amongst staff! Microsoft from 2005, allegedly started the name the 'USB Flash Drive'.

Even now, more improvements are being made to these USB devices, including smaller chips inside making it cheaper and also reducing the speed it takes, to transport the data onto the computer or device. 

From a promotional merchandise point of view...these USBs are a highly affordable business gift which suits a huge raft of people, and which can be sent very easily in a small envelope!

 

Sources of info:

http://www.usbmemorydirect.com/news/overview_of_usb_flash_drives.htm http://peripherals.about.com/od/removablestorage/f/USBFAQ.htm

Written by

Total Merchandise | Editoral Team

Our editorial team is drawn from a pool of experienced promotional merchandise product team members, account managers, marketers and other contributors. With such a wide range of skills and experience, they write about many aspects of promotional merchandise, wider marketing and business matters, as well as company news updates.

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