Memory Chips – The Primary Component Of Memory Sticks

By Author: Simon Britten
Total Articles: 9
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The most important component in any USB stick is of course the flash memory chip. These chips have the acronym EEPROM, which stands for electrically, erasable, programmable, read-only memory. As with all solid-state technology, the chips are relatively immune from damage by shock or vibration due to the lack of moving parts.

The chips come in a range of grades in respect of read, write speeds and data retention capabilities, and can be found in digital cameras and mobile phones as well as USB sticks. In addition, with their non-volatile nature, data retention is not reliant on a constant power supply. Other highlights include fast access times and low power consumption on a chip that on average lasts for close to 100,000 write cycles.

Quality is obviously an issue and Flash chips fall into four basic categories:

Original Branded Chips – Made by the leading well-known global producers and tested to high quality standards. These chips come with a full warranty, a unique serial number and are highly reliable.

OEM Chips – A discounted but equally reliable version of the above but without the ...
... branding or warranties.
Downgraded Chips – Rejects from the main manufacturer’s QA process purchased by third parties. A cheaper option but with a higher failure rate.

Fake Chips – Low capacity chips, often of a downgraded variety, reprogrammed to report much higher memory capability and sold as such.

Flash chips fall into the "solid state” category of computer technology and their applications share a number of advantages over normal hard drives that have numerous moving parts. With platters, spindles, and read and write heads constantly moving around, magnetic hard drives are susceptible to knocks, vibrations, and magnetic fields amongst other things. Solid-state devices also require very little power, and coupled with the lack of moving parts results in negligible heat generation.

Apart from being generally more robust and energy efficient than magnetic disk drives, a solid state device will also perform better in some areas particularly in terms of speed. With faster start up, access, and application launch times they are rapidly replacing traditional disk-based hard drives, especially in the light of regular memory increases that are now very impressive.

For such a tiny piece of electronic hardware, the Flash chip is a powerhouse that has revolutionised the way data is stored and transported. With constant development and increases in memory capacity, future advances could be endless.

Simon is part of the Bespoke USB team. Bespoke USB is the only place you need to visit for branded USB flash drives. Make a statement for your business with your own custom USB design. Visit our site today.