http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/13/0243231&from=rss

I think that eventually maybe but I believe we have a little while before they are up to hard drive size. Also you have some other benefits with a hard drive ... but of course flash drives offer benefits too. They may take out the need for external hard drives though....

That might take a while. I think access speed will be an issue too. Imagine running windows off of your Flashdrive! Not just a matter of size. What I -could- see happening is them becoming a tool for backups. If they get as large as hard drive, it could become a viable alternative. How about companies shipping a little flashdrive instead of a CD? Or instead of a movie DVD, you just plug a drive into your DVD player? Plug it into your CD player in your car? Could be interesting!

Yep....the small size of flash is what i think gives it the major advantage over other types. Also it can't be scratched , etc. It can be ruined. Sometimes if you leave them by cell phones and of course magnets they can mess up. Actually it is rare for cell phones to do anything but they can. (Having them together for like 20 days right on top of each other.)

I know i use it for small programs that i want to install on other peoples computers. I agree that it will come down to access speeds and such. They have to increase it which means the ports would have to get faster. Does anyone know if there is any research going into something like USB 3? or FireWire 2?

This company is advertising its fash drives in PC World...of up to 8 GB. Wow that is a lot .... probably costs a lot too...

http://www.transcendusa.com

Here is the PC world link

http://find.pcworld.com/49861

"Flash memory stores permanent information on some palm-sized computers. Unlike RAM (random-access memory), flash memory can continue to store information in the absence of a power source. Palm devices often make use of flash memory to store the operating system and core applications. Unlike ROM (read-only memory), you can write to flash memory, making it possible to update the operating system and applications via software. Flash memory is more expensive than ROM. ..."
www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp (http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&start=0&oi=define&q=http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp%3Fguid%3D%26article%3Darticles/hardware/2004/h0707/handheldterms.asp)

"Flash Basics

We discussed the underlying technology of Flash memory in How ROM Works (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/rom.htm), but here's a quick review: Flash memory is a type of EEPROM chip. It has a grid of columns and rows with a cell that has two transistors at each intersection (see image below).


The two transistors are separated from each other by a thin oxide layer. One of the transistors is known as a floating gate, and the other one is the control gate. The floating gate's only link to the row, or wordline, is through the control gate. As long as this link is in place, the cell has a value of 1. To change the value to a 0 requires a curious process called Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. On the next page, we'll talk about tunneling." http://computer.howstuffworks.com/flash-memory1.htm


Other sites....


http://www.sandisk.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_flash.asp
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Flash-Memory-HOWTO/