M-Systems was a Nasdaq-listed Israeli producer of flash storage memory founded in 1989 by Dov Moran and based in Kfar Sava, best known for developing and patenting the first USB flash drive, trademarked "DiskOnKey," which it released in 2000. IBM was the first to market USB flash drives in North America, purchasing them from M-Systems and selling them under the IBM-brand label. These USB flash drives became available from IBM on December 15, 2000 and had a storage capacity of 8 MB, more than five times the capacity of the then-common floppy disks.
DiskOnKeys were part of the "one-two sucker punch" that killed the venerable floppy disk (the other being cheap recordable CD-ROMs and later DVDs). Aside from being a reliable way to transfer data from computer to computer, disk-on-keys are now finding new life, expanding the storage space of the latest portable craze, the NetBook.
In 2005, PC World named the DiskOnKey one of the world's top 10 gadgets in the last 50 years.
M-Systems was also known for its DiskOnChip line of products for embedded computers.
The company was acquired by SanDisk in 2006.
SanDisk To Buy Israeli M-Systems - $1.56 Billion
