Intel announced today the Intel Solid-State Drive 310 Series, an ultra-small solid-state drive (SSD) that promises to deliver similar performance to a 2.5" Intel X25-class Solid-State Drive but in an eighth of the size. Measuring 51mm-by-30mm and only 5mm thick, the Intel SSD 310 brings flexibility, ruggedness and scalability to new form factors and devices. It can enable dual-drive notebooks, single-drive tablets and low-power, rugged embedded industrial or military applications. When paired with a high-capacity hard disk drive (HDD) in a dual-drive system, the Intel SSD 310 can improve overall PC system performance by up to 60 percent, according to Intel's benchmarks.

The Intel SSD 310 Series contains 34 nanometer (nm) Intel NAND flash memory and is available in an m-SATA form factor in 40 gigabyte (GB) and 80GB capacities.

The SSDs support SATA signals over a PCI Express (PCIe) mini-connector for on-board, compact storage in single-drive netbooks, tablets or handheld devices. Weighing just 10 grams, the compact size also enables dual drive all-in-ones, notebooks or small-form-factor (SFF) desktops to help accelerate boot time and access to frequently used applications or files.

With its rugged design, the Intel SSD 310 Series has been chosen by DRS Technologies for a new ARMOR communications tablet PC to be unveiled at Storage Visions in Las Vegas. The ARMOR mobile and field unit tablet PC is certified by DRS to work in extreme temperatures and hold up to shock, vibration and drops, delivering up to nine hours of operating time.

"The Intel SSD 310 Series is the first in a wave of SSD products we will introduce throughout the next year," said Tom Rampone, Intel vice president and general manager of Intel?s NAND Solutions Group.

Already shipping, the Intel SSD 310 is priced at $99 for the 40GB capacity and $179 for the 80GB version, both in 1,000-unit quantities.