Chip manufacturers make either a 4 port or 7 port USB hub chip. You run into power problems after 7 ports. Companies who build USB Hubs are limited by this chip design. Placing two hub chips inside a hub box doesn’t make much sense because your host computer already has several USB ports – they just figure you’ll buy two units if you need more (4 or 7) USB ports.With these poll results I think it’s safe to say USB is the majority leader in peripheral connectivity. Continue Reading
It’s a little slow today on the USB front so we’ll take a closer look at a new flash technology from Toshiba. Yesterday Toshiba announced a hybrid flash memory technology which should be a great boost for the mobile phone industry.
Going along the concept of Readyboost, where by you have two memory sources working together to enhance performance, the break through Toshiba made is a hybrid of two current memory technologies, SLC and MLC memory.
So here are the nuts.
Single Level Cell (SLC) memory is best suited for storing information like programs and applications. SLC memory is designed to be a fast performer for such ‘stored’ data.
Multi Level Cell (MLC) memory is best suited for data being used by programs and applications. The MLC memory has a better physical space ratio compared to SLC and is thus better for storing video, images and music.
Up until now, phone designers have had to factor the cost and the space to have two separate chips of both kinds in their designs, which has led to bigger phones.
With Toshiba’s new chip, mobile phone designers now have a choice about how much of each kind of memory they need incorporate into their phones.
Toshiba claims its latest memory-chip architecture will offer higher memory capacity, while allowing more compact mobile phone designs. Great – I don’t know about you but there definitely is a size limitation to how small a phone should be…although on the flip side the mobileLBA-NAND technology will give at least 8GB of storage. Available later this summer to mobile phone manufacturers, which means another six months it’ll hit the streets.
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Update: This post has been amazing and generated a lot of interest. To make things easier, I have compiled a USB Super Stick for you. If you are interested in a 1GB drive with all the apps [below] for $20 – shoot me an email: gmo<at>getusb.info and I’ll send you more details.
USB flash is not (yet) a portable PC whereby any USB KVM monitor is your workstation – but it will get there. In the meantime, making the most of your USB stick and creating a portable software suite isn’t hard – you just need a little guidance. So… for you road-warriors or super geeks, the following list of 55 portable applications is worth taking note of. With 2GB, 4GB and 8GB drives readily available at extremely cheap prices, making a portable software suite and creating a Super Stick is quite easy.
When building your Super Stick there are numerous programs designed to run specifically from a USB drive. Best of all, almost all these programs are free, so put that Amex back in your wallet and let’s start downloading. Here’s a list of 55 of the most useful USB programs around.
