The pace at which Flash memory continues to shrink can be quite staggering, and SanDisk is getting ready to astound us once again. This week it launched a new integrated solid-state disk (iSSD) that can squeeze up to 64GB into a package barely larger than your thumbnail.
The new package measures an amazing 16mm x 20mm x 1.85mm and will be available in capacities from 4GB up to 64GB. The chip is designed to be soldered onto motherboards and used in the next generation of portable devices, like tablets, phones and media players.
According to SanDisk senior director Doron Myersdorf, "the new category of embedded SSDs should enable OEMs to produce tablets and notebooks with an unprecedented combination of thin, lightweight form factors and fast performance".
By getting rid of the hard-drive enclosure and interface normally associated with flash storage, the company has managed to shrink this iSSD to amazing proportions. Of course, sacrifices have to be made and in this case it's the ability to upgrade the storage later.
These new chips won't break any SSD speed records, either, but they're still plenty fast; the company promises sequential speeds of up to 160MB/sec read and 100MB/sec write, which SanDisk claims is the fastest available at this size.
The new embedded SSD is currently available for sampling to OEMs, so we can probably expect to see devices integrating the storage by the start of 2011.
