The USB mass storage device class (USB MSC) is a set of computing communications protocols defined by the USB Implementers Forum that run on the Universal Serial Bus. The standard provides an interface to a variety of storage devices.
Some of the devices which are connected to computers via this standard are:
- external magnetic hard drives
- external optical drives, including CD and DVD reader and writer drives
- portable flash memory devices, particularly keydrives
- adapters bridging between standard flash memory cards and a USB connection
- digital cameras
- digital audio players (iPod, iAudio, Creative MuVo, Samsung Yepp series, SanDisk Sansa and other DAPs)
- high-end hardware media players
- Card Readers
- Portable Gaming systems (Nokia N-GAGE/Sony PSP)
- personal data assistants and handheld computers
- some newer mobile phones, such as the Sony Ericsson K800 and K510, Nokia N73, Nokia E61
- USB Keystroke loggers
Devices (such as digital audio players) which support this standard are referred to as MSC (Mass Storage Class). MSC is the official acronym, while UMS (USB Mass Storage) has become common in some online forums. Not all digital audio players support this standard; some use MTP - another standard soon to emerge from the USB-IF, or proprietary protocols in lieu of MSC. (This information is not always revealed by the published device specifications.)
