Verbatim Americas, engaged in digital storage, has launched its new ExpressCard SSD for PC and Mac users.

According to the company, the new card is a solid-state drive that provides ExpressCard slot-equipped XP/Vista PCs and OS X-equipped Macs with plug-in storage that is up to five times faster than USB-based ExpressCards.

Based on the 34mm ExpressCard module, the Verbatim ExpressCard SSD is expected to be available by the end of February 2009 with capacities of 16, 32 and 64 Gb. The storage system comes bundled with NTI Shadow, a backup application that provides PC and Mac users with continuous real time backup of critical data.

Verbatim claims that with read speeds of up to 125 Mb/sec and write speeds up to 30 Mb/sec, Verbatim’s new ExpressCard SSD offers better performance than USB-based ExpressCard SSD services, due to the throughput limitations of the USB 2.0 interface.

Mark Rogers, product manager of Verbatim, said: We’re excited about the launch of our new ExpressCard SSD because it offers all the advantages of a traditional SSD in a plug-and-play, integrated form factor. Since it’s a plug-and-play device, there’s no hardware installation. It fits completely inside your laptop’s ExpressCard slot so you can easily take it with you for automated backup of your critical data, without the need to carry around or keep up with external devices.