New "U3 enabled" USB flash drives: What is "U3"?

[Kwad Guy]

A new generation of USB flash drives is starting to appear in the stores that are labeled "U3 enabled". Supposedly, the U3 standard allows all kinds of apps to be run from the flash drive without touching anything on the host PC...

See www.u3.com

I don't quite understand, however, if U3 is just software (and maybe formatting of the USB drive) or is it a firmware difference?

If it's software and/or formatting, I guess you could image a U3 drive onto a non U3 drive to make...a U3 drive. If it's firmware then, of course, that isn't going to work...

Anyone know about this?

Kwad

 

[Bozo Galora]

http://www.everythingusb.com/u3.html

 

[Kwad Guy]

So U3 is a small boot partition on the flash drive. But is this something one can force onto a non-U3 drive by imaging a U3 drive, or are there hardware differences?

Kwad

 

[Adul]

pretty cool stuff time for a new usb flash drive