Skip to main content
SecuritySaudi defense minister says he discussed Houthi attacks in call…Hanukkahin 32 days · December 5, 2026Hebrew date23 Cheshvan 5787USD/ILS₪3.139Kinneret-213.71 m
Election 2026

The results of the 27 October vote

An 8 MB Disk on Key drive with its IBM cap, next to a coin for scale

2000Technology

The Israeli company M-Systems starts selling DiskOnKey, a flash drive for your pocket.

The patent is approved on 14 November 2000, and sales to the public begin on 15 December.

The story in numbers.

  • 8 MB

    capacity of the basic model

    SourceTechnion

  • 4 TB

    capacity of a drive the same size today

    SourceTechnion

  • $1.6billion

    paid by SanDisk for M-Systems in 2006

    SourceTechnion

Here is how it happened.

  • A man with glasses in a blue shirt looking to the side, with a glass wall covered in writing behind him

    1989

    Dov Moran founds M-Systems.

    He starts the company to develop storage systems based on rewritable flash memory. Moran is a graduate of the Technion's electrical and computer engineering faculty.

    SourceTechnion

  • 14 November 2000

    The patent for DiskOnKey is approved.

    The device is revealed to the public soon after. Moran says the idea came when his laptop battery was dying before a presentation and he had no way to move his slides to another computer.

    SourceTechnion

  • 15 December 2000

    Sales to the general public begin.

    The basic model holds 8 MB and the premium model up to 32 MB. Today a drive of the same size can hold up to 4 terabytes.

    SourceTechnion

  • 2006

    SanDisk acquires M-Systems.

    The price is $1.6 billion, according to the Technion.

    SourceTechnion

  • 2015

    Moran receives a data storage award from the IEEE.

    The prize is the IEEE Reynold Johnson award for data storage device technology. In 2025 the Technion marks 25 years since the invention.

    SourceTechnion

1 of 5

Here is why it matters.

The original models held 8 to 32 MB, and the Technion says they quickly replaced CDs for storing and moving data. SanDisk bought M-Systems in 2006 for $1.6 billion.

Three more milestones to read next.

  • The Check Point office building in Tel Aviv, with green walls

    1993

    The Israeli company Check Point is founded, and ships FireWall-1 in 1994.

    Read the story

  • 1998

    America Online buys Mirabilis, the Israeli maker of ICQ.

    Read the story

  • A Mobileye camera mounted behind a car's windscreen

    2017

    Intel agrees to buy Israel's Mobileye for about $15.3 billion.

    Read the story

Where each fact was read.

Sources read on 1 November 2026.