SanDisk has expanded its solid-state drive product line with a module roughly a quarter the size of 1.8-inch hard drives. SSDs are faster, lighter, cooler-running and more power efficient than their traditional HDD counterparts. The flash-based uSSD 5000 is designed to be embedded on the motherboards of low-cost PCs or other consumer devices.
The uSSD 5000 weighs less than two ounces, and is available in two slightly different form-factors: standard, and low profile. Both are approximately 1.5 inches long, and just over an inch wide. However, the standard profile is 0.42 inches (10.6 mm) thick, whereas the low-profile unit is 0.26 inches (6.6 mm) thick. SanDisk will begin sampling the uSSD 5000 within the next month in sizes ranging from 1GB to 8GB.