"USB3" idea

[gbrandwood]

How about this:

Two USB2 pen drives, each half the normal size, connect together to make a "normal" size pen drive:

Normal keyring drive:
________
|_____|__|

Two half-size drives connected together:
_________
|____|____|

Right. Plug both drives into two separate USB2 sockets on your PC. Each drive gets it's own letter. On one of the drives has some special on it (to be written/developed). You run the software and it stays resident in memory on the PC (no HDD install).

The software creates a new, third drive, which is a virtual drive. Anything Written to the virtual drive is automatically split 50% and then each portion written to one of the physical drives. When browsing the virtual drive, it shows the files as if they were one single file, and opening them causes the software to put them back together before loading.

Hey presto - you read and write at approximately double USB2 speeds (a little slower I guess depending on various things (.e.g HDD speed, time taken to split merge files etc.)

What do you think?

[Gihgehls]

It's called RAID 0, look it up.

[falves]

Gareth,

This is already possible on just about any computer, it's called RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) level 0, where data is split between two (or more) physical drives to create a single, faster logical drive. The danger of RAID level 0 is that if one drive fails, the whole array fails. There several other levels of RAID which provide redundancy and/or speed in different ways. RAID arrays are usually made up of hard disks, but are certainly possible with USB thumb drives. Your computer may or may not have RAID software built-in, but if not, you can get it separately. There are also many hardware RAID controllers on the market. See this Wikipedia article for more info.

-Fernando

[gbrandwood]

I am aware of RAID, guys. But I'm talking about portable memory sticks here. Is RAID available for these? If so then yet again I'm about 10 years behind!

Genius isn't on my business card for a reason I guess!

[falves]

I specifically mention in my reply that it is possible with memory sticks...

By the way, there already is a specification for USB 3 (which has nothing to do with RAID), see this.

-F

[Gihgehls]

Hey look a google search

[gbrandwood]

Sorry, Falves. You did mention it. I'm reading all about it now. My mind didn't even consider RAID on anything other than HDDs. My idea (now we know a little bit irrelevant) was to achieve faster performance to be like USB3, without anyone having USB3 ports.

Gihgehls, thanks for the google search link. I'll have to remember to do that in future before announcing my next big idea!

Now, how about a platform that can balance on two wheels? I'll call it the "Two wheel balancing machine"....

[falves]

Now that's an idea! Where do I invest?!

Originally Posted by gbrandwood

Now, how about a platform that can balance on two wheels? I'll call it the "Two wheel balancing machine"....

[Bob.Kerns]

Originally Posted by falves

Now that's an idea! Where do I invest?!

You might want to check on the business plan, marketing plan, and the prior valuation (and hence, how much of the idea you're getting for your money).