Flash Memory

Flash memory contains the initial code loaded into a computer's memory upon boot. It holds the firmware, which is just large enough to find the system it starts and load it from a drive.

Blank flash memory holds no firmware. To write firmware to it, craft it together with the processor that firmware is built for: a RISC-V processor writes the Linux firmware, a Z80 processor writes the CP/M firmware.

Neither firmware includes a system of its own, so a machine needs the matching medium as well: a hard drive for Linux, a floppy for CP/M.

You are not limited to the two Linux and CP/M firmwares. A flash drive provides flash memory to a computer as a plain block device, so a machine can write whatever you like onto it.

Crafting programmed flash memory with a wrench erases it back to blank flash memory, discarding the firmware and anything stored on it.