Plug-in USB flash for mobos arrives

WHILE INTEL AND other motherboard manufacturers plan to integrate Vista-compliant flash memory onto motherboards in the form of Robson technology, PQI has been going about things rather differently, producing a USB Readyboost drive with an internal pin-head connection.

Readyboost drives are traditionally thumbsticks that plug into a USB port. This is a module that straps right onto a motherboard USB header, otherwise used for mounting additional USB ports at the back of the machine, and provides up to 2GB of flash integrated.

The flash should accelerate Windows functions by caching frequently used files and components.

The 2GB model is expecting to go for $70, with a weedy 256MB edition coming in at $23.

You can check out a picture of the device in thrilling hot naked mobo action right here. It's certainly a different approach, although given that performance isn't vastly improved by Readyboost, we're not sure it will see much of a take up. µ