It's a reader/writer box, however, the boxes (all brands pertaining to embroidery) use specially sized cards specific to embroidery programs. They don't work any differently than any other type of reader/writer or flash card, it's just that the generic brand cards will not fit.

The Box for the Rose (or any other Husqvarna) is hard to find because they don't make them anymore. Also, it requires a serial port instead of the new USB connection. Sometimes you can find them on Ebay. I don't know if anyone makes a serial port device with a USB adapter on the other end, but might be worth looking into.

I would suggest that you purchase one of the newer boxes that will read and convert any designs you may want to download from the net. There are a few . .

The Ultimate Box by Vicant which is also backward compatible to Win 98, which is what your Rose actually reads.

(There is also Magic Box, but I don't know anything about that one.) There's another one, also, but it only comes with a full embroidery program. $$$$

The only drawback is that it will not read any of your Husqvarna embroidery cards because they are code protected.

I have an Ultimate Box Plus with conversion feature and it works fine for me, very easy to use. If you get the box, make sure you get one that comes with the card and that it's an updated version.

Here's a link for information. I actually bought my box somewhere else cheaper, but this site is chocked full of information.

http://www.secretsof.com/content/2509


Hope this helps.