The History of the USB Logo and USB Device

USB flash drives have become just as ordinary and accepted as any other form of data storage device available today.  Once upon a time, these USB sticks were very rare and very expensive, primarily because there was not that many of them that were available at the time since they were fairly new.

However, USB flash drives have been officially available now for well over a decade and have become more and more affordable almost at the same rate that they have become more and more effective as well.  There is a lot of history that is buried deep within these tiny storage devices that you may or may not know already.  There is even a little history behind the logo that even the most computer-illiterate individuals in the world today can easily recognize as being associated with USB data storage.  Here is a brief history lesson to show you how far these portable storage devices have come over the past two decades.

A Collaboration of Many Different Companies

In order to create a standard connector for all computers that would increase the overall efficiency of the data transfer process, seven big brand-name computer companies joined forces to start developing the USB port in 1994.  These companies included such dominating forces of the world of technology as IBM, Intel and Microsoft and Digital Equipment Corporation so it truly was a big deal and obvious that they all felt the need to fulfill this monumental goal.

One year later, over 300 companies brought their efforts together in order to create the USB Implementation Forum that strived to work together as a team in order to implement this type of revolutionary technology into all personal computers and laptops across the board.  Within a year of their forum formation, over 500 different USB products were developed and distributed on a global scale.  Over the next several years, USB became the most popular device within the market of technology, was upgraded to the USB 2.0 system that most devices currently use today and went completely wireless in 2005.

The History behind the Logo

If you thought that a lot of work and effort had to go into the designing and development of the USB system itself that is only the tip of the iceberg. There is even a story behind the actual USB logo that is used today.  It actually took several months for them to agree on a single idea that would be used to identify USB ports and devices and that trident logo is still being used even today.

This article was written by Alan a USB expert who buys his memory sticks from usbtrader.com

Image courtesy of jscreationzs / freedigitalphotos.net