thumb|An assortment of flash drives
thumb|[[Transcend Information|Transcend JetFlash from 2014]]
A flash drive is a portable computer drive that uses flash memory. Flash drives are the larger memory modules consisting of a number of flash chips. A flash chip is used to read the contents of a single cell, but it can write an entire block of cells. They connect to a USB port and function as a folder. They can also be encrypted for extra security.
Specific flash drive types
Memory cards:
- Flash memory-based CompactFlash (CF) card (including CFast card) and XQD card (Note: some other types of CF and XQD card are not flash memory-based)
- Memory Stick (MS)
- MultiMediaCard (MMC)
- Secure Digital card (SD, SDHC, SDXC)
- SmartMedia card (SM)
- xD-Picture Card (xD)
Other:
- Solid-state drive, SSD, using flash memory (a few SSDs use DRAM or MRAM)
- USB flash drive (UFD)
See also
- Flash memory
- Comparison of memory cards