U3, partners add intelligence to USB drives

By Agam Shah

September 19, 2005 12:00 PM ET

IDG News Service - Technology start-up U3 LLC on Monday is expected to announce the availability of Universal Serial Bus drives based on its smart computing platform, which allows applications to run directly off USB drives, independent of other storage devices.

Smart USB drives based on U3's software and hardware platform will allow users to carry their entire PC in a USB drive, so that when they hook up to a PC on the road, it will have the same look and feel as their work or home PC.

USB smart drives are expected to be announced by hardware vendors including SanDisk Corp. and Verbatim Corp. at Demofall, which will be held in Huntington Beach, Calif. from Sept. 19 to 21. Software vendors, including America Online Inc. and The Mozilla Foundation, are expected to announce products that run directly off the USB smart drives.

"U3's concept is about taking your whole personal workspace with you, not just the data, but the files, folders, preferences, plug-ins, settings, everything you need, to make any PC feel and look and act like your own," said Kate Purmal, CEO of U3. Applications on a U3-compliant USB drive are not tied to a specific laptop or desktop but are installed and launchable directly off the drive, Purmal said.

The ability to run applications directly off USB smart drives gives mobile users the choice of whether to work off their laptop or use a public computer, Purmal said. Users are already happy with the simplicity and portability of USB drives, she said. "You just plug them in and they work," Purmal said.

Once a U3-compatible smart drive is plugged into a USB 2.0 port, a U3 LaunchPad automatically launches, helping users run software applications from the drive, Purmal said. When the USB drive is pulled out, system software automatically shuts down applications running on the USB drive and cleans out data fragments so no personal data is left behind, Purmal said. The LaunchPad also has a menu for drive management and administration as well as a link that leads users to a Web site where U3-compliant software is available, Purmal said.

The U3 system software, which makes it possible for other applications to run directly off the smart drive, takes up 6MB of storage and loads up in about 30 seconds after a drive is plugged in, Purmal said. Once the system software is loaded, software applications load quickly. "I haven't see any difference between launching [software applications] from the U3 drive versus launching it from a hard drive," she

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