Solid state drives (SSDs) are clearly the wave of the future for mobile devices. The drives are faster, lighter, cooler-running and more power efficient than their traditional hard disk drive (HDD) counterparts. The two dings in SSD's armor currently are the comparatively low storage capacities and high cost of entry.

In the case of Samsung's 32GB SSDs, the 1.8" variety will cost you $434 while the 2.5" version will rings up at $699. Stepping up to Samsung's 2.5" 64GB SSD will set you back a whopping $1,299.

SanDisk is looking to drop the price of SSDs for the entry-level market with its new uSSD 5000 SSD series. The USB-based drives will be used in sub-$250 PCs and will be embedded directly onto motherboards.

"The low-cost educational PC category is an emerging market for flash storage where low cost, ruggedness and low power consumption will be the primary factors for broad-based adoption," said SanDisk general manager Greg Rhine. "At 2GB, the uSSD 5000 solid state drive delivers the necessary storage capacity for low-cost PCs at significantly less cost than conventional hard drives, while meeting performance and reliability requirements for this market."

The uSSD 5000 packaging measures just 27mm x 38mm and is roughly one-fourth the size of a traditional 1.8" HDDs used in mobile applications.

SanDisk will begin sampling the uSSD 5000 within the next month and it will be available in sizes ranging from 1GB to 8GB.


Source from DailyTech