I wonder how things have changed since this article? It talks of a big divide between cheap flash drives (USB sticks, SD cards, etc) and &#x27;real&#x27; SSDs (e.g. the non-removable 2.5&quot; hard drive replacements).<p>At the time, all but the worst &#x27;real&#x27; (for want of a better word) SSD hard drives had enough local RAM and firmware smarts to do proper I&#x2F;O ordering, buffering and manipulation. This effectively hides all the complexities of the flash storage, allowing any OS to work well.<p>The cheap USB sticks and their ilk couldn&#x27;t do this because of their lack of RAM, decent firmware and all associated money-saving build choices. But as the hardware gets cheaper, I wonder if this is still true? Do USB sticks and SD cards nowadays have more RAM &amp; better firmware?