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Well, this is probably cliche, but one company aims to change that. Trek Technology of Singapore has engineered a product in answer to those grievances. Meet the ThumbDrive, plain and simple, not some confounded name like MicroStoragePimpin' 2000 or some such. It is available in 8, 16, 32, 32, 64, 128, 256 and 512MB capacities for the non-secure model, and in 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256MB capacities for the secure model. The review unit, graciously provided by C&W Computers, is the 32MB non-secure model. This review also applies to the secure model, as the only differences are that you need to enter a password to access the contents of the ThumbDrive, it's 3mm longer and 18g heavier.

The ThumbDrive comes in a sturdy cardboard box, with a well written user manual, a certificate of warranty, and a driver disk.

How is it different from other removable storage devices? It integrates the storage device, the power brick, the data cable and the storage media all in one neat package. And as its name suggests, the ThumbDrive is about the size of an average person's thumb. It is a solid state storage device, meaning that it uses memory chips, rather than other physical means, to store information. This makes it hardier, which translates to a lower risk of data loss / corruption, something that all end-users want. Additionally, a solid state storage device also has an advantage in terms of latency. Taking a HDD for example, even in a modern HDD, such as the Seagate Barracuda ATA II, there is a 13.3ms delay for the actuator and platter to get in place when reading data. Assuming that the ThumbDrive uses 13.3ns memory (to simplify calculations), the ThumbDrive would be 1,000,000 faster than the Barracuda! While transfer rate is also heavily influenced by other factors such as drivers, firmware and interface, this at least ensures that latency will not be a performance bottleneck.

Moving on to interface, the ThumbDrive uses a self-contained USB interface. It currently sports USB 1.1 technology - but the company is working on a faster USB 2.0 version. While the USB interface certainly isn't as fast as other storage interfaces (eg. IDE, SCSI, FireWire, Fibre-Channel), its still much better than using the parallel port. Furthermore, since USB is a hotplug interface (ie. a USB device can be plugged/unplugged while the PC is still active), installation is greatly simplified. I just plugged in the ThumbDrive, met the standard "New Hardware Found" window and installed the provided drivers. Subsequently, you only need to plug in the ThumbDrive, and it is automatically assigned a new drive letter, all ready to be used like any other drive. Now I'll touch on the performance aspect of the drive. While the use of memory chips provides low latency and thus a high maximum transfer rate, the ThumbDrive is limited by the USB interface, which was designed with a bandwidth of 12Mbits/sec, or 1.5Mbytes/sec. However, this figure is not even achieved, probably due to overheads and/or implemention problems. Trek Technology quotes a read rate of 700Kbytes/sec and a write rate of 350Kbytes/sec.

To verify these claims, I used the 'ol file copy timed with stopwatch method, using the average of 3 runs for both read and write. The ThumbDrive finished storing a 24MB TIFF image (from my Cheetah 4LP) in 1 min 16 sec, which translates into 315Kbytes/sec, reasonably to their claim of 350Kbytes/sec. Copying the same file from the ThumbDrive to the Cheetah took 37.5 seconds, which means an effective read rate of 640kbytes/sec. While falling short of 700Kbytes/sec, it is still rather zippy.

To cap off the features list, there is also a write protection switch at one end and a LED. When the switch is in the "open" position, data can be read and written to the ThumbDrive. When the switch is "closed", data can only be read from the ThumbDrive. The LED serves as an indicator, lighting up when the computer has detected the ThumbDrive, and flickering during I/O operations. Lastly, data dcan be stored on the ThumbDrive for approximately 10 years.

That's the technical aspect. It didn't take me long to figure out some neat uses of the ThumbDrive. For example, transferring files that are greater than 1.44MB in size between non-networked PCs, or sneaker-nettting files between office and home. As a notebook user, I also substituted the FDD with the ThumbDrive, and I've been a happy camper since. It could also be used in conditions where the operation of floppies and other removable media are unreliable. Heck, with a few modifications, Trek Technology could make it big in the defense industry. Just waterproof it, add thermal and EMP shielding, and you have the ThumbDrive : Military Edition :)

Now matter how useful or technically advanced a product, the price tag also matters to the consumer. The 32MB non-secure model reviewed weighs in at US$129. We also managed to get the pricing info for the 16MB (US$69), 64MB (US$199), and 128MB (US$399) non-secure models. So, how does it compare to other removable storage solutions?

Compared to the 128MB SmartMedia and Compact Flash solutions (assuming that the reader/writer does not require an external power source), you pay roughly a 50% premium for the ThumbDrive. However, keep in mind three things : the ThumbDrive is smaller and lighter; you don't need a reader/writer, cable and power supply; which leads to much more convenience. Ignoring capacity, Iomega's Zip drive is the least elegant removable storage solution, being that it is larger and heavier. Although it is ultimately up to you, the reader, to decide whether the price premium is justified, I personally feel that it is worth it.

Well, if you've read this far, then you probably already know what we think about this product. A most convenient removable storage device the size of your thumb, with its one-year warranty, adequate performance (though it probably has the potential to be even faster), and ease of use, it gets our excellence award for being the most innovative product that we have seen to date. Congratulations, Trek 2000 International Ltd!