Safer Stick: Biometric Flash Disk

Test Configuration

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Hardware
ProcessorIntel Pentium 4, 2.0 GHz 256 kB L2 Cache (Willamette)
MotherboardIntel 845EBTIntel 845E ChipsetBIOS BT84520A.86A.0024.P10
Memory256 MB DDR/PC2100, CL2.0 Micron/Crucial
Controlleri845E UltraDMA/100-Controller (ICH4)On-Board USB 2.0 (ICH4)On-Board FireWire
Graphics CardATI Radeon SDRAM, 32 MB
Network3COM 905TX PCI 100 MBit
OSWindows XP Pro 5.10.2600 SP1
Benchmarks & Measurements
Performance MeasurementsZD WinBench 99 - Disk Inspection Test
Graphics Driver5.1.2001.0 (Windows XP Standard)
IDE DriverIntel Application Accelerator 2.3
DirectX Version9.0a
Screen Resolution1024x768, 16 Bit, 85 Hz refresh

Benchmark Results

The Biometric Flash Disk's data transfer capacity is hampered by USB 1.1, which only offers a 1 MB/s transfer rate. A USB 2.0 interface would thus be better.

Conclusion

The Biometric Flash Disk could read and process fingerprints almost flawlessly. However, in order for it to become a perfect travel companion Plexuscom should equip it with an USB 2.0 port to ensure higher transfer rates up to 480 MBit/s. This way the use of the maximum storage capacity would really make sense. Right now, it takes approximately ten minutes until the available versions with 512 MB of storage capacity are full - this is definitely too much time.

Working and transporting important documents demand a high level of security. It's nice to see that at least one vendor has taken note of this market. Plexuscom's Biometric Flash Disk is also definitely a suitable product, no matter if you think of yourself as the new James Bond at home, or if the secure transportation of important documents is part of your life at work.