If we are to take a look at the product releases coming from this year's Computex show in Taipei, we can say with certainty that SSDs are likely to become the standard storage solution very soon. SanDisk, TDK and Intel are among the biggest names to announce new solid-state drives. On top of that, ASUS has also launched its Eee PC 1000h series, which is going to feature a large capacity drive.

Because the SSDs provide a better power efficiency and come in smaller sizes, they are increasingly used in a large number of devices. Another advantage of the SSD drives is that they are generally more rugged, as they lack moving parts. The ASUS Eee PC or the Apple iPhone are just two of the products available on the market that are already using SSD as the primary storage solution.

SanDisk has introduced a new line of solid-state drives specifically designed to accommodate the storage requirements of sub-notebooks like the Eee PC, Aspire One or Wind. The company's new pSSD (Parallel ATA solid state drive) lineup is available in 4, 8, and 16GB capacities. According to SanDisk, the drives are capable of a "streaming read" speed of 39 Mb/s and a "streaming write" speed of 17 Mbps. These pSSDs are expected to become available starting this August, when the company will also go public with the price list.

With the HS1 series, TDK steps in to offer its own SSD-based solution. These drives come in a 1.8-inch form factor and feature a Micro Serial-ATA interface. TDK's offer includes capacities of 16, 32 and 64 gigabytes. These drives are built on the SLC (single-level cell) NAND flash technology, which is widely used by SSD manufacturers.

Users looking to purchase a TDK SSD will have to come up with a fat wallet and the willingness to dip into it, as these drives can cost as much as $1,900 for a single 64GB model.

One of the surprises at Computex is clearly Intel's offer, since up until now it wasn't even a competitor in the storage industry. The Santa Clara-based company will introduce its Z-P230 PATA series of SSDs, which it plans to present as a cost-effective storage solution. The drives are expected to come in 4GB and 8GB capacities and are going to mark Intel's first steps on the storage market.