Systems, methods and apparatus for flash drive

Abstract

Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which, in some embodiments, a USB flash memory storage device includes a plurality of interfaces to external devices. An apparatus to store data can include a non-volatile computer memory coupled by a male interface to an external device, such as a computer, and a by a female interface to another external device, such as another apparatus to store data. Thus, multiple apparatus may be coupled together in daisy-chain fashion to create a single, larger memory device that can be accessed by the computer.

Description

[0001]This invention was made by an employee of the United States Government and may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates generally to flash drives, and more particularly to portable flash drives.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Conventional universal serial bus (USB) flash drives are NAND-type flash memory data storage devices integrated with a USB interface. Conventional USB flash drives are typically small, lightweight, removable and rewritable. These USB flash drives are commonly known as “thumb drives” and “data sticks.”[0004]USB flash drives have several advantages over other portable storage devices, particularly the floppy disk. Conventional USB flash drives are generally faster, hold more data, and are considered more reliable (due to their lack of moving parts) than floppy disks. Conventional USB flash drives use the USB mass st...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014]An extendable USB drive provides increased storage capacity that is available to a personal computer through a universal serial bus (USB) port of the computer.

[0015]In some embodiments, an apparatus to store data includes a non-volatile computer memory coupled by a male interface to an external device and a by a female interface to an external device. This may solve the need in the art to increase the storage capacity that is available to a personal computer on a USB drive by allowing a number of the apparatus to be connected in series.

[0016]In other embodiments, a USB flash drive includes a USB mass storage controller coupled to a NAND flash memory chip, a crystal oscillator and a plurality of type-A USB interfaces. This may solve the need in the art to increase the storage capacity that is available to a personal computer on a USB drive by allowing a number of the USB flash drives to be connected in series, thus increasing the available storage capacity by the number of USB flash drives connected in series.

[0017]In yet other embodiments, a USB flash drive includes a USB mass storage controller coupled to a NAND flash memory chip, a crystal oscillator and a plurality of type-A USB interfaces in which the plurality of type-A USB interfaces comprise essentially one or more male type-A USB interface and female type-A USB interface. This may solve the need in the art to increase the storage capacity that is available to a personal computer on a USB drive by allowing a number of the USB flash drives to be connected.

Problems solved by technology

By definition, USB flash drives are limited in the amount of data that can be stored thereon because the NAND flash memory chip is manufactured with a certain amount of data storage capacity.

The data storage capacity can be increased by physically replacing the NAND flash memory chip, but physically replacing the NAND flash memory chip costs many more times the price of the original USB flash drive, and accordingly, replacing the NAND flash memory chip is not performed except under the most extraordinary of circumstances.

However, the number of USB ports that is available on a computer is usually limited to 2 or 3 USB ports, so the number of USB flash drives that can be connected is 2 or 3.

However, each of the USB flash drives having a unique and different drive identification increases the complexity of locating data on the USB flash drives.

However, this technique still has the problem that each drive has a unique and different drive identification, which in turn increases the complexity of locating data on the USB flash drives.

This technique is also ultimately limited by the number of USB ports on the computer and the number of USB devices that can be connected to each port.

Images