SanDisk Corporation announced the release of a cheap solid state drive, SSD for short, as the company joins the efforts of bringing personal computers to the developing nations and emerging markets. The uSSD 5000 is a small capacity solid state drive which is intended to replace a more expensive storage unit like a traditional hard disk drive in low cost computer systems and the very first system to use the new SanDisk SSD will be Intel's Classmate PC.

SanDisk's uSSD 5000 solid state drive storage unit is connected via a high speed USB port to the host computer system or it can be directly packed into the motherboard of low cost PCs in order to replace the hard disk drive. Supporting a variety of operating systems from Microsoft Windows Vista to Windows XP Professional and XP Embedded as well free and open source alternatives like Linux, the new SSD is expected to ship soon in capacities between 2 and 8GB. The uSSD 5000 solid state drive storage unit is the first SSD from SanDisk to use the new and patented technology called multi-level cell (MLC for short), which allows the implementing system to double its data storage capabilities using the same amount of space like the older single-level cell (SLC for short) technology.

"The low-cost educational PC category is an emerging market for flash storage where low cost, ruggedness and low power consumption will be the primary factors for broad-based adoption," said Greg Rhine, senior vice president and general manager of the Consumer Products Division at SanDisk in a press release. "At 2GB, the uSSD 5000 solid state drive delivers the necessary storage capacity for low-cost PCs at significantly less cost than conventional hard drives, while meeting performance and reliability requirements for this market. We are proud to have been chosen for the Intel-powered classmate PC, a product that demonstrates how inexpensive SSDs can contribute to the worthy cause of improving education in the developing world."

The small and low cost uSSD 5000 offers a wide range of advantages when compared to traditional hard disk drives like lower cost, increased resistance to mechanical shocks and so on. Because a solid state drive contains no moving parts it is better suited for mobile use than a hard disk drive being at the same time better protected and lighter. The new SSD drives from SanDisk are expected to hit the storage market in force during the fourth quarter of the year even if engineering samples will be available in the next 30 days.