As already noted in one of our previous posts from earlier today, the Santa Clara-based leading chip manufacturer Intel seems to be highly focused on the development of its Atom business. Then again, this is ultimately explainable by the increasing amount of interest users take in the netbook market, which is where the Atom processor shines the brightest. On that note, Intel has launched a smaller SSD for mini laptops, also commonly known as netbooks.

We all know that some of the currently available netbooks provide an option for an SSD or a normal hard drive, where their storage device is concerned. While SSDs are preferred because of their better performance features, hard disks are more affordable and, at the same time, provide a larger storage capacity.

Intel has decided to become more involved in this dynamic market and has consequently released the Z-P230 solid state drive, which is specifically designed for netbooks and nettops. The new SSD is based on a miniature card module that weighs just 8g, compared with the 11g for the original Z-P230 that the company announced earlier this year.

The Z-P230 SSDs will be manufactured in the same quantities as the Atom and we will probably get to see them in future netbooks coming from major system makers. The Z-P230 SSD has been designed to take up as little space as possible, to weigh little and to extend battery life. Unlike the Z-P140, which is designed for MIDs, the Z-P230 focuses on low cost.

The company announced that the Z-P230 was already available in 4GB and 8GB capacities, while a 16GB version would be ready sometime in September. Price-wise, we are looking at a tag of $25 and $45 for the 4GB and 8GB, respectively. Unfortunately, these prices are expressed for 1,000-unit quantities.

As far as netbooks and nettops go, Intel is expected to release a number of new products in the near future, including the dual-core Atom.