Solid-state drive manufacturer STEC has just announced the launch of a new series of SSD products that now come in a diminutive one-inch form factor. It seems that STEC is not at all afraid of Seagate's patent infringement lawsuit and continues to innovate on the SSD field.

The tiny storage device is built around the company's MACH4 series of solid-state drives. The drive is primarily aimed at embedded systems and space-critical applications, as it allows system integrators to reduce the footprint and power requirements of designs, while preserving their flexibility.

"For the numerous applications which were historically challenged by the severe limitations of 1-inch hard disk drives (HDD), STEC is now offering a much more cost-effective, higher capacity and higher reliability alternative in an easy-to-implement solution," said Patrick Wilkison, vice president of marketing and business development.

According to the company, the new MACH4 solid-state drive is built on STEC's proprietary controller technology, with multiple Flash channels to boost the transfer rates. Despite its miniature size, the SSD makes no compromise in terms of performance. The one-incher can deliver throughput speeds of up to 90MB/s, more than a mid-range fully-fledged SSD can deliver.

"The MACH4 1-inch SSD family offers a compelling combination of speed, reliability and form factor, all in an integrated storage device, thus enabling an entirely new wave of applications," continued Wilkison. "The drive's unique blend of attributes makes it an ideal solution for applications ranging from blade servers to ultra-mobile PCs to various other small format devices which require the highest throughput in the smallest package," he concluded.

The drive supports all the modern interconnect technology, including native SATA and PATA, that allows OEM to integrate the products without having to re-design the existing platforms. According to the manufacturer, the MACH4 series of miniature solid-state drives can be used in GPS/navigation solutions, automotive entertainment systems, interactive kiosks, and ultra-portable notebooks.

The new drives will arrive on the market until the end of this month, in capacities of up to 32 GB. However, they will not be sold on the retail market, but to OEM and system integrators. There is no word on pricing yet.