GetUSB.info is pleased to announce the launch of its Portuguese-language website, expanding access to USB technology news, flash memory analysis, and technical reference articles for readers throughout Brazil and other Portuguese-speaking regions. The new site is available at https://pt.getusb.info/.

The Portuguese edition follows the same editorial philosophy as the English publication by focusing on technology, engineering, and industry developments rather than product marketing. Articles are carefully translated and adapted to read naturally in Portuguese while preserving the technical accuracy, explanations, and detail of the original English content.

Readers will find coverage of USB hardware, flash storage, data integrity, cybersecurity, duplication systems, and broader technology topics. Whether explaining how USB protocols work or examining changes in the NAND flash memory market, the objective remains the same: publish informative technical content that is easy to understand without sacrificing engineering depth.

One recently published article, Por que o hardware de duplicação se comporta de forma diferente de uma cópia de arquivos por arrastar e soltar, explains why dedicated duplication hardware behaves differently from a traditional drag-and-drop file copy. It demonstrates the type of practical technical content now available to Portuguese-speaking readers.

The launch of pt.getusb.info is part of GetUSB.info’s continued effort to make quality technical information accessible to a broader international audience. As new articles are published on the English site, additional content will continue to be translated and released in Portuguese.

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There is something uniquely satisfying about plugging a USB device into a Windows computer and having it appear almost immediately. Windows identifies the hardware, loads the appropriate driver, assigns the storage device a drive letter and, within a second or two, the USB drive is ready to use.

Most users never need to think about what happened during those few seconds. For developers, IT administrators, hardware engineers and anyone writing software that interacts with USB devices, however, the automatic process raises an important question: Where does Windows get the information it uses to identify the device?

A USB flash drive can report more than one identity. At the USB level, the device reports a Vendor ID, commonly called the VID, and a Product ID, commonly called the PID. After Windows recognizes the device as USB mass storage, the storage device can also report a SCSI Vendor string, SCSI Product string and product revision.

Those values are related because they describe the same physical device, but they do not come from the same place. They are not interchangeable, and they do not always identify the same manufacturer or product name.

Windows 10 provides several ways to view or retrieve this information. Some methods are designed for a person sitting in front of the computer. Others are better suited for scripts, inventory systems, diagnostic software or applications that need to identify USB storage devices automatically.

USB VID and PID Versus SCSI Vendor and Product

Before looking at the different Windows methods, it helps to understand the two identities involved.

The USB Vendor IDA hexadecimal Vendor ID used to identify the manufacturer of a USB device during enumeration. and Product IDA hexadecimal identifier assigned by a USB vendor to identify a specific product or product family. come from the device’s USB descriptors. These values are reported when the USB device is first connected and Windows begins the USB enumeration process.

A typical USB hardware identifier might look like this:

USB\VID_090C&PID_1000&REV_1100
USB\VID_090C&PID_1000

In this example, the values are:

USB VID = 090C
USB PID = 1000

The VID is intended to identify the USB vendor, while the PID identifies a product or product family assigned by that vendor. Both values are hexadecimal numbers.

After Windows determines that the connected device is a USB Mass Storage device, Windows communicates with it through the storage command layer. A standard SCSIA modern USB data transfer protocol that improves efficiency by supporting command queuing and parallel processing. Inquiry response can include a Vendor string, Product string and Revision string.

A storage hardware identifier might look like this:

USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_Flash_Disk&Rev_8.07

In this example, the values are:

SCSI Vendor   = Generic
SCSI Product  = Flash Disk
SCSI Revision = 8.07

The USB VID and PID are numeric identifiers used during USB enumeration. The SCSI Vendor and Product fields are text strings reported through the storage interface. A device manufacturer can change one identity without necessarily changing the other.

This is why a flash drive might report a USB VID associated with a controller manufacturer while the SCSI Product field displays a retail product name, a customer name or something generic such as “USB Flash Disk.”

How Windows Builds the Two Device Identities

The easiest way to picture the process is as two stages. Windows first identifies the connected USB hardware. It then identifies the storage device operating through that USB connection.

The USB VID and PID become available during the first stage. The SCSI Vendor, Product and Revision fields become available after the USB mass-storage driver is loaded and Windows queries the storage device.

This distinction also helps explain why Windows can remember a USB device after it has been disconnected. As discussed in our article about why Windows keeps a history of previously connected USB devices, Windows stores information gathered during device enumeration so it can recognize and manage the hardware the next time it appears.

Why Would Someone Need Both Sets of Information?

For simple troubleshooting, the USB VID and PID may be enough. For device inventory, manufacturing, diagnostics or software development, collecting both identities provides a more complete picture.

An inventory application may use the USB VID and PID to group devices by hardware platform, while displaying the SCSI Vendor and Product strings to the user. A manufacturing utility may confirm that a supported USB controller is connected before performing an operation. A diagnostic program may record all of the identifiers so results from different devices can be compared later.

Digital-forensics tools may collect the identifiers as part of a device record. USB validation software may compare the identity being reported by the device with the behavior observed during testing. This can be useful because the name, capacity and performance claimed by a USB device do not necessarily prove what hardware is actually inside it.

The same principle applies to data integrity. Identification information tells us what the device claims to be, while testing tells us how it behaves. Our article explaining why USB data verification should sometimes include a power cycle examines a similar difference between information reported immediately and information proven after the device has been disconnected and reconnected.

Method 1: Use Windows Device Manager

Device Manager is the easiest place to begin because it requires no command line, scripting or programming. The important detail is that the USB identity and storage identity usually appear under two different device entries.

Find the USB VID and PID

Open Device Manager and expand the section named Universal Serial Bus controllers. Locate the USB Mass Storage Device associated with the drive, right-click it and select Properties.

Select the Details tab and choose Hardware Ids from the Property drop-down list.

Device Manager
→ Universal Serial Bus controllers
→ USB Mass Storage Device
→ Properties
→ Details
→ Hardware Ids

A typical result may look like this:

USB\VID_090C&PID_1000&REV_1100
USB\VID_090C&PID_1000

The four characters following VID_ are the USB Vendor ID. The four characters following PID_ are the USB Product ID.

Find the SCSI Vendor and Product

Return to Device Manager and expand Disk drives. Locate the USB flash drive, right-click it and select Properties. Once again, open the Details tab and select Hardware Ids.

Device Manager
→ Disk drives
→ USB flash drive
→ Properties
→ Details
→ Hardware Ids

The result may look similar to this:

USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_Flash_Disk&Rev_8.07

Windows has formatted the values into a Plug-and-Play hardware identifier:

Ven_Generic     = SCSI Vendor
Prod_Flash_Disk = SCSI Product
Rev_8.07        = SCSI Revision

Device Manager is an excellent choice when inspecting one device manually. Its limitation is that matching the correct USB Mass Storage entry to the correct Disk Drive entry can become confusing when several USB drives are connected at the same time.

Method 2: Use PowerShell

PowerShellA task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft, consisting of a command-line shell and scripting language. is a better choice when the information needs to be collected repeatedly, displayed in a report or retrieved from more than one computer. Windows 10 includes PowerShell and the Plug-and-Play cmdlets needed for basic device inspection.

List Present USB Devices Containing a VID and PID

Open PowerShell and run the following command:

Get-PnpDevice -PresentOnly |
Where-Object {
    $_.InstanceId -match '^USB\\VID_'
} |
Select-Object FriendlyName, Class, InstanceId

The output will include device instance IDs similar to this:

USB\VID_090C&PID_1000\1234567890

The next example extracts the VID and PID into separate columns:

Get-PnpDevice -PresentOnly |
Where-Object {
    $_.InstanceId -match '^USB\\VID_'
} |
ForEach-Object {
    if ($_.InstanceId -match 'VID_([0-9A-F]{4})&PID_([0-9A-F]{4})') {
        [PSCustomObject]@{
            DeviceName = $_.FriendlyName
            VID        = $matches[1]
            PID        = $matches[2]
            InstanceId = $_.InstanceId
        }
    }
}

This is useful because it converts a long Windows device instance string into a cleaner result containing the device name, VID and PID.

List USB Storage Information

The following PowerShell command queries the Windows disk-drive class and filters the results for USB storage devices:

Get-CimInstance Win32_DiskDrive |
Where-Object {
    $_.InterfaceType -eq 'USB' -or
    $_.PNPDeviceID -like 'USBSTOR*'
} |
Select-Object DeviceID,
              Manufacturer,
              Model,
              FirmwareRevision,
              PNPDeviceID

A result may look like this:

DeviceID        : \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2
Manufacturer    : Generic
Model           : Flash Disk USB Device
FirmwareRevision: 8.07
PNPDeviceID     : USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_GENERIC&PROD_FLASH_DISK&REV_8.07...

The Manufacturer and Model fields can be convenient, but they are not populated consistently by every USB storage device. The PNPDeviceID often provides the clearest representation of the Vendor, Product and Revision values Windows received.

PowerShell is one of the best general-purpose options because it requires no compiled application. The harder part is correlating a USB-level device entry with its matching physical disk when several devices are connected. A more advanced script can follow Windows parent-and-child device relationships to perform that match.

Method 3: Use WMI or the WMIC Command

Windows Management Instrumentation, usually shortened to WMI, has been used for many years to retrieve hardware and operating-system information. Many Windows 10 computers also include the older WMIC command-line utility.

WMIC is useful for quick testing and for maintaining older scripts, although PowerShell and CIM are generally the better choices for new development.

Display USB Disk Information with WMICWindows Management Instrumentation Command-line tool for querying system information.

Open Command Prompt and run:

wmic diskdrive get DeviceID,InterfaceType,Manufacturer,Model,FirmwareRevision,PNPDeviceID

To limit the result to disk drives using a USB interface, run:

wmic diskdrive where "InterfaceType='USB'" get DeviceID,Manufacturer,Model,FirmwareRevision,PNPDeviceID

A typical result may resemble this:

DeviceID             Manufacturer  Model                  FirmwareRevision
\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2   Generic       Flash Disk USB Device  8.07

The PNPDeviceID column may contain a longer value:

USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_GENERIC&PROD_FLASH_DISK&REV_8.07\...

Search Plug-and-Play Entries for USB VID and PID Values

The following WMIC command searches Plug-and-Play devices for entries containing a USB VID:

wmic path Win32_PnPEntity where "PNPDeviceID like 'USB%%VID_%%'" get Name,PNPDeviceID

The doubled percent signs are used by WMIC as wildcard characters inside the query.

WMIC may not be present or enabled on every newer Windows installation, and Microsoft has been moving administrative scripting toward PowerShell. For a Windows 10 utility or an existing enterprise script, however, WMI can still provide useful information.

Method 4: Use the Windows SetupAPI

Software written in C or C++ can retrieve Windows Plug-and-Play device information through the SetupAPI. This is a practical approach for desktop applications that need to discover USB devices automatically rather than requiring the user to look through Device Manager.

A complete SetupAPI application includes error handling, dynamic buffers, device-property parsing and cleanup. The following abbreviated example shows the main Windows calls involved.

Create a Device Information Set

#include <windows.h>
#include <setupapi.h>

HDEVINFO deviceInfoSet = SetupDiGetClassDevsW(
    nullptr,
    L"USB",
    nullptr,
    DIGCF_ALLCLASSES | DIGCF_PRESENT
);

This creates a device-information set containing USB devices currently present in the computer.

Enumerate the Device Entries

SP_DEVINFO_DATA deviceInfoData{};
deviceInfoData.cbSize = sizeof(SP_DEVINFO_DATA);

for (
    DWORD index = 0;
    SetupDiEnumDeviceInfo(
        deviceInfoSet,
        index,
        &deviceInfoData
    );
    ++index
) {
    // Retrieve device properties here.
}

Read the Hardware ID Property

WCHAR hardwareIds[4096]{};
DWORD requiredSize = 0;

if (SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyW(
        deviceInfoSet,
        &deviceInfoData,
        SPDRP_HARDWAREID,
        nullptr,
        reinterpret_cast<PBYTE>(hardwareIds),
        sizeof(hardwareIds),
        &requiredSize
    )) {

    // Search hardwareIds for:
    // VID_xxxx
    // PID_xxxx
}

The returned hardware-ID property can contain one or more null-separated strings. A USB device entry may contain an identifier such as:

USB\VID_090C&PID_1000&REV_1100

The application can search that string for the VID_ and PID_ fields and extract the following four hexadecimal characters.

When finished, the device-information set should be released:

SetupDiDestroyDeviceInfoList(deviceInfoSet);

SetupAPI is powerful, but there is an important detail: Windows represents the USB device and the physical disk as separate nodes in the device tree. Retrieving the USB VID and PID is relatively direct. Matching those values to the correct disk, drive letter and SCSI identity may require walking through the parent-and-child device relationships.

This is one reason a commercial diagnostic application usually requires more code than a short demonstration suggests. The individual properties are available, but correctly joining all the information into one device record is the real work.

Method 5: Query the Storage Device Directly

A Windows application can query a physical disk by opening the device and sending an IOCTL_STORAGE_QUERY_PROPERTY request. This method is useful for retrieving storage information such as the Vendor, Product, Revision, serial number and bus type.

The example below opens PhysicalDrive2. The actual physical-drive number will depend on the computer and which USB device is being inspected.

Open the Physical Drive

HANDLE drive = CreateFileW(
    L"\\\\.\\PhysicalDrive2",
    GENERIC_READ,
    FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE,
    nullptr,
    OPEN_EXISTING,
    0,
    nullptr
);

if (drive == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
    // Handle the error.
}

Prepare the Storage Query

STORAGE_PROPERTY_QUERY query{};
query.PropertyId = StorageDeviceProperty;
query.QueryType  = PropertyStandardQuery;

Send the Query to Windows

BYTE buffer[4096]{};
DWORD bytesReturned = 0;

BOOL result = DeviceIoControl(
    drive,
    IOCTL_STORAGE_QUERY_PROPERTY,
    &query,
    sizeof(query),
    buffer,
    sizeof(buffer),
    &bytesReturned,
    nullptr
);

Interpret the Returned Storage Descriptor

if (result) {
    auto descriptor =
        reinterpret_cast<STORAGE_DEVICE_DESCRIPTOR*>(buffer);

    const char* vendor =
        descriptor->VendorIdOffset
            → reinterpret_cast<const char*>(
                buffer + descriptor->VendorIdOffset
              )
            : "";

    const char* product =
        descriptor->ProductIdOffset
            → reinterpret_cast<const char*>(
                buffer + descriptor->ProductIdOffset
              )
            : "";

    const char* revision =
        descriptor->ProductRevisionOffset
            → reinterpret_cast<const char*>(
                buffer + descriptor->ProductRevisionOffset
              )
            : "";

    const char* serial =
        descriptor->SerialNumberOffset
            → reinterpret_cast<const char*>(
                buffer + descriptor->SerialNumberOffset
              )
            : "";
}

The strings are not stored directly inside the fixed portion of the structure. Instead, the structure provides byte offsets pointing to the locations of those strings inside the returned buffer.

When finished with the physical-drive handle, close it:

CloseHandle(drive);

A successful storage query can provide information similar to this:

Vendor   = Generic
Product  = Flash Disk
Revision = 8.07
Serial   = 1234567890
Bus Type = USB

This method is closer to the storage device than reading a friendly name from Device Manager or querying a cached registry value. However, it does not automatically return the USB VID and PID. The application must still correlate the physical disk with its USB parent and retrieve the USB hardware identifier separately, normally through SetupAPI or the Windows Configuration Manager functions.

Which Windows Method Should You Use?

There is no single best method for every situation. The correct choice depends on whether the goal is manual inspection, scripting, software development or low-level device analysis.

For a person checking one USB drive, Device Manager is usually enough. For administrators collecting information from many computers, PowerShell is likely the best starting point. For software developers building a Windows utility, SetupAPI combined with a storage-property query provides the most complete approach.

Is the Windows Registry Another Method?

Windows stores USB enumeration information in the Registry, and it is possible to locate both USB and USB-storage entries there.

USB device entries are commonly found under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB

USB storage entries are commonly found under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR

These locations are useful for troubleshooting and historical analysis, but the Registry should not be confused with the original source of the information. Windows creates and updates these entries after it has already enumerated the USB device and queried the storage interface.

The original USB VID and PID come from the USB descriptors. The original storage Vendor, Product and Revision values come from the storage device’s Inquiry response. The Registry is where Windows records the results for later use.

Registry permissions can also make direct access inconvenient for software. When an application only needs information about devices that are currently connected, the supported Windows device APIs are usually a better choice.

Why the USB and SCSI Names May Not Match

It is common to expect every identifier to display the same manufacturer name. In practice, USB flash drives are built from several layers of hardware and firmware, and each layer may report something different.

A retail flash-drive company may purchase a controller from another manufacturer. The USB VID may identify the controller vendor or the company responsible for the firmware, while the SCSI Product field may contain the retail brand name. In other cases, the SCSI strings remain completely generic.

A device might report:

USB VID      = 090C
USB PID      = 1000
SCSI Vendor  = Generic
SCSI Product = Flash Disk

Another drive might report:

USB VID      = 0951
USB PID      = 1666
SCSI Vendor  = Kingston
SCSI Product = DataTraveler 3.0

Neither format automatically proves that the product is genuine. These identifiers are useful for identification and correlation, but they are values reported by firmware. A sufficiently modified or counterfeit device may report whatever values were programmed into it.

This is an important distinction for developers building device-validation software. Identification values should be recorded, but they should not replace capacity testing, write-and-read verification, performance testing or other forms of behavioral analysis.

A Practical Device Record

For software that inventories or tests USB flash drives, a useful device record may include more than four fields.

USB VID
USB PID
USB Revision
USB Serial Number
SCSI Vendor
SCSI Product
SCSI Revision
Storage Serial Number
Physical Drive Number
Drive Letter
Reported Capacity
Bus Type
Connection Speed

Not every USB drive will provide every value. Serial numbers may be missing, duplicated or reported differently at the USB and storage levels. Manufacturer strings may be blank. Product names may be generic. The software should expect incomplete information rather than assuming every field will always be available.

The strongest approach is to collect the available identifiers, preserve the original values and then associate those values with whatever performance, capacity or verification results the application produces.

One Thing Before You Go

Windows 10 offers several reliable ways to find a USB drive’s VID, PID, SCSI Vendor and SCSI Product information. Device Manager provides a quick manual answer. PowerShell and WMI provide scriptable access. SetupAPI gives Windows applications access to the Plug-and-Play device tree, while a direct storage-property query retrieves information associated with the physical disk.

The important lesson is that a USB storage device has more than one identity. The USB VID and PID come from the USB enumeration layer. The SCSI Vendor, Product and Revision values come from the storage layer. Looking in only one place may provide only half of the information.

Once that distinction is understood, the apparently conflicting names shown by Windows begin to make sense. The device is not necessarily changing its identity. Windows is simply showing information collected from two different parts of the same hardware.

This article originally appeared on GetUSB.info. Subscribe to GetUSB updates.

Most people who need a USB Wi-Fi adapter spend about five dollars online and wait a day or two for delivery. Software developer Bái Yìbai decided there had to be a more interesting solution. Instead of buying a Wi-Fi dongle, they spent an entire holiday weekend writing firmware that transforms a six-dollar Raspberry Pi Pico WA low-cost microcontroller board with built-in Wi-Fi, used for versatile USB and wireless projects. into a completely driverless USB Wi-Fi adapter. The project recently caught the attention of Adafruit, who highlighted the firmware and introduced it to a much wider audience.

At first glance that sounds like a lot of work to avoid spending a few dollars, but that’s exactly why this project caught our attention. It isn’t about saving money. It’s about demonstrating just how flexible the USB standard can be when someone is willing to think a little differently.

Normally, when you plug a USB Wi-Fi adapter into a computer, the operating system expects to communicate directly with the wireless hardware. That usually means installing drivers that understand the specific Wi-Fi chipset inside the adapter. Every manufacturer has its own hardware, firmware, and software, which is why driver installation has traditionally been part of owning a USB Wi-Fi adapter.

The Raspberry Pi Pico W takes a completely different approach.

Instead of introducing itself as a Wi-Fi adapter, it tells the computer that it is simply a USB Ethernet adapter. Every modern operating system already understands USB Ethernet devices, so there is nothing new to install. Windows, macOS, Linux, and even many mobile operating systems already include the necessary support.

The clever part happens inside the Pico itself. While the computer believes it is sending ordinary Ethernet traffic over USB, the Pico quietly converts that traffic into Wi-Fi communications using its onboard wireless radio. To the operating system, nothing unusual is happening. From the user’s perspective, the computer suddenly has wireless networking without ever loading a dedicated Wi-Fi driver.

Think of it like hiring a translator.

The computer only speaks Ethernet. The wireless router only speaks Wi-Fi. Rather than teaching the computer an entirely new language, the Raspberry Pi Pico simply listens to one language and speaks the other. Each side continues communicating exactly as it always has, while the Pico performs the translation in the middle.

This idea illustrates one of USB’s greatest strengths. USB devices are not defined by what hardware they contain. They are defined by what they claim to be.

A keyboard announces itself as a keyboard. A mouse identifies itself as a mouse. A flash drive identifies itself as mass storage. A webcam appears as a video device. The operating system generally doesn’t care what processor is inside the enclosure. Instead, it cares how the device identifies itself during USB enumeration.

That flexibility has inspired countless creative USB projects over the years. Security researchers have built devices that identify themselves as keyboards to automate commands. Tiny development boards have become logic analyzersDevices or tools used to capture and display multiple signals from digital circuits for debugging and analysis., oscilloscopesDevices used to capture and display electrical signals for analysis and debugging., serial adapters, MIDI controllers, and debugging interfaces simply by changing the firmware they run. The hardware often stays exactly the same while the USB personality changes completely. We covered a similar concept in an earlier article explaining how changing a USB device’s identity can alter the way an operating system interacts with it.

The Raspberry Pi Pico W project joins that growing collection of clever USB hacks. Rather than pretending to be wireless hardware, it pretends to be something every operating system already understands. By choosing compatibility over complexity, the developer eliminated the need for custom drivers altogether.

Perhaps the funniest part of the entire project is the author’s own explanation. They openly admit that buying a five-dollar USB Wi-Fi adapter would have been faster, cheaper, and considerably easier. Instead, they spent two days and roughly one million AI coding tokens developing firmware simply because they wanted to see if it could be done.

That may not have been the most economical solution, but it perfectly captures the spirit of engineering. Sometimes the goal isn’t building the cheapest device. Sometimes it’s proving that an unconventional idea actually works.

Projects like this are a reminder that USB is far more than a connector on the side of your computer. Behind that familiar rectangular plug is a remarkably flexible communication standard that continues to inspire creative solutions nearly three decades after its introduction.

Further Reading: Adafruit recently covered the project and credited software developer Bái Yìbai for creating the open-source firmware. Their article provides additional background on the project and includes links to the source code. You can read the Adafruit coverage here.

This article originally appeared on GetUSB.info. Subscribe to GetUSB updates.

Electric vehicle batteries and NAND flash couldn’t appear more different. One stores electricity, the other stores digital information. One powers automobiles while the other powers smartphones, laptops, USB flash drives, and solid-state storage. Yet behind the factory walls, both industries follow remarkably similar economic rules.

Both require staggering capital investments before the first product ever reaches a customer. Both depend on relentless manufacturing improvements to remain competitive. Both experience years of falling production costs as factories become more efficient. And eventually, both find themselves competing in markets where buyers increasingly compare price just as much as performance.

It may seem like an unusual comparison, but the similarities become obvious once you look at the numbers.

The Race to Lower Costs

The first chart compares the long-term decline in manufacturing costs for electric vehicle battery packs and NAND flash memory. Although the products measure different things—battery capacity is priced by the kilowatt-hourA unit of energy equal to one kilowatt of power used for one hour. while flash memory is often measured by the gigabyte—the trend is remarkably similar when both are indexed to the same starting point.

Neither industry reduced prices because the technology became simpler. Quite the opposite.

Neither industry reduced prices because the technology became simpler. Quite the opposite. Battery chemistry continued to improve while NAND manufacturers advanced from planar flash into increasingly complex 3D NAND architectures containing hundreds of memory layers. Manufacturing became more sophisticated, not less. Manufacturing became more sophisticated, not less.

What changed was the manufacturing process. Higher production volumes, better automation, improved yields, faster equipment, larger factories, and years of engineering refinements steadily reduced the cost of producing each individual unit. The result is a classic manufacturing learning curve: the more efficiently companies build a product, the less each unit costs to produce.

This pattern has repeated itself throughout modern manufacturing history. Once production scales and competitors adopt similar techniques, prices trend downward even while the underlying technology becomes more advanced.

The Billion-Dollar Barrier

Lower product prices do not mean manufacturing has become inexpensive. In fact, the opposite is often true.

Today’s battery gigafactoriesLarge-scale manufacturing facilities designed to produce electric vehicle batteries and other advanced technologies at massive volumes.and semiconductor fabrication facilities represent some of the largest industrial investments on the planet. Building one requires years of planning, specialized equipment, advanced automation, highly trained engineers, and billions of dollars before meaningful production begins. Every new generation of manufacturing equipment raises the cost of entering the market.

The second chart illustrates that reality. Major battery manufacturers and semiconductor companies routinely announce projects costing several billion dollars, with advanced memory fabrication facilities often exceeding ten billion dollars in investment. These are not ordinary factories—they are among the most technologically sophisticated manufacturing environments ever constructed.

The irony is difficult to ignore. Every new factory increases production capacity, improves manufacturing efficiency, and ultimately places additional downward pressure on product pricing. The very investments that make better products possible also accelerate the competition that reduces profit margins.

When Innovation Becomes a Commodity

Consumers benefit enormously from this cycle. Flash memory is now inexpensive enough to store terabytes of data in the palm of your hand, while electric vehicles continue to become more affordable as battery costs decline. Those lower prices are the direct result of decades of engineering investment and manufacturing innovation.

For manufacturers, however, success becomes increasingly difficult. Building the world’s most advanced production facility is only the beginning. Once multiple companies achieve similar manufacturing capabilities, purchasing decisions increasingly shift toward price, availability, reliability, and supply. The technology remains extraordinary even as the finished product becomes increasingly interchangeable.

At first glance, NAND flash and electric vehicle batteries appear to belong to completely different industries. One stores data while the other stores energy. Yet their manufacturing economics tell nearly the same story: invest billions to build world-class factories, continuously improve production efficiency, and compete in markets where every penny matters.

Building the future may cost billions. Selling it often comes down to pennies.

This article originally appeared on GetUSB.info. Subscribe to GetUSB updates.

This article originally appeared on GetUSB.info. Subscribe to GetUSB updates.

Recently, Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac published an article about the free Mac application WhatCable, a clever utility that reads information available from electronically marked USB-C cables and presents it in an easy-to-understand format. For anyone with a drawer full of nearly identical USB-C cables, the software can quickly identify charging capabilities, supported data rates, USB specifications, and other characteristics that would otherwise remain hidden from the user.

While reading the article, one sentence immediately stood out.

Near the end of the review, Lovejoy notes that the application does not work perfectly because some cables can lie about their capabilities.

Although that comment was only a brief observation about USB-C cables, it highlights a much larger engineering concept that applies to virtually every USB device on the market. Whether the hardware is a USB-C cable, flash drive, SSD, or even a USB hub, there is an important distinction between what a device reports about itself and what independent testing proves it can actually do.

For readers who recently saw our discussion about USB data verification and why power cycling matters, the underlying principle is remarkably similar.

Modern USB devices constantly advertise information about themselves. A USB-C cable may contain an eMarker chipA chip embedded in USB-C cables that reports cable capabilities such as charging current, data rates, and vendor information. that identifies supported charging current, data rates, and vendor information. Flash drives report their storage capacity, USB version, and manufacturer identification. SSDs maintain SMART information describing drive health, remaining life, and operating temperature. In each of these examples, the host computer is not independently measuring every reported characteristic. Instead, it is displaying information supplied by the device itself.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, that information is accurate. However, engineering has repeatedly shown that descriptors are not the same as verification. Counterfeit flash drives have long reported capacities far larger than the physical NAND memory installed. USB-C cables occasionally advertise performance levels they cannot consistently sustain under real-world operating conditions. Storage devices may report excellent health while intermittent failures begin developing under heavy workloads. The descriptors themselves are not necessarily incorrect; they simply represent what the controller believes, or what it has been programmed to report.

This is precisely why the discussion surrounding power-cycle verification is so interesting. An immediate verification confirms that data can be read successfully immediately after it has been written. A power cycle asks a different question: after the controller has completely shut down, restarted, and rebuilt its internal state, does the data still exist exactly as expected? The distinction is subtle, but important. One validates a successful transaction, while the other provides a stronger test of whether the data truly persisted after the device restarted.

None of this should be interpreted as criticism of the WhatCable application. In fact, it appears to do exactly what it was designed to do. Presenting cable capabilities in plain English is far more useful than expecting users to decode USB Power Delivery descriptors or eMarker data manually. The application simply illustrates an engineering reality that has existed for decades: software can only report what the hardware makes available. If the information supplied by the hardware is incomplete or inaccurate, software cannot independently correct every limitation.

The larger lesson is that USB descriptors, SMART data, cable identification, and device enumeration should all be viewed as valuable pieces of information, but not as absolute proof of performance or reliability. They represent the beginning of an evaluation rather than its conclusion. Whether the objective is validating a high-speed USB-C cable or confirming the integrity of duplicated flash media, meaningful testing still requires observing how the hardware behaves under actual operating conditions. In engineering, there is a significant difference between a device describing its capabilities and a device consistently demonstrating them.

This article originally appeared on GetUSB.info. Subscribe to GetUSB updates.