Samsung Electronics has said that it is sampling a SATA-interface mini-card solid state drive (SSD) with some of its netbook customers.
The new mini-card SSD features a mini-PCI Express (PCIe) form factor with a SATA 3.0Gb/s interface. The card can be used in printers and various handheld terminals including ruggedised mobile devices.
Samsung claims that the new mini-card SSD form factor can be used in a combination comprised of the SSD as main memory and HDD as supporting storage space. This new approach is expected to increase the adoption of SSDs in a broader range of applications.
The company said that it is working to standardise the new mechanical form factor and its pin layout specifications at JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council). With possible revisions by OEM manufacturers, standardization could be expected as early as the third quarter of this year.
According to Samsung, the new mini-card SSD is 30 millimetres (mm) wide and 51mm in height. It weighs up to 8.5g, measures up to 3.75 mm thick and consumes 0.3 watts of power. It will be produced using 40-nanometer-class process technology and available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities providing a sequential read rate of 200Mbps and writes data sequentially at 100Mbps.
