A
USB flash drive, also known under a variety of other names, is a
data storage device that includes
flash memory with an integrated
USB interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than an
optical disc. Most weigh less than . , drives of up to 512
gigabytes (GB) were available. A one-
terabyte (TB) drive was unveiled at the 2013
Consumer Electronics Show and became available later that year. Storage capacities as large as 2 TB are planned, with steady improvements in size and price per capacity expected. Some allow up to 100,000 write/erase cycles, depending on the exact type of memory chip used, and have a 10-year
shelf storage time.