Two things you may have heard of are flash drives and memory cards. Both may seem similar. However, they are actually two different products. Flash drives are a kind of portable device. Inside each flash drive are two components. One is a flash memory chip for storing data. The second is a miniature circuit board. Both of these typically exist in a small plastic case that is about the size of a thumb. This is why flash drives are sometimes referred to as thumb drives. Another very important part of each flash drive is something referred to as a universal serial bus connector. You may know this component better by the shortened name USB connector. This means that each flash drive can be connected to a computer via a USB input just like cameras, keyboards, and numerous other devices. Flash drives were introduced to consumers in 2000. Originally, they only had a storage capacity of about eight megabytes. Today, flash drives can store as much as 16 gigabytes. This space can be used for anything from spreadsheets to movie files. However, it is the portability aspect that has perhaps been the most responsible for making flash drives extremely popular. A person can simply save their work on one computer to the drive and take it home with them. This way students and office employees can easily transport large files from computer to computer without having to rely on the internet for moving that information from place to place. Memory cards, on the other hand, are very similar to flash drives but also different. Like flash drives, memory cards have small flash memory chips that can store a large amount of information. They are also both very portable due to their small size. The technology, in the end, is the same. However, memory cards are a kind of consumer product that is marketed for different uses than what is usually referred to as a flash drive. Flash drives are usually bought to be used with personal computers. Memory cards, on the other hand, are usually used with phones, cameras, and game consoles. Memory cards used for these purposes will generally not be compatible with a regular PC.