in brief Intel is making a "small" change to its lineup of solid-state drives, with its new solid-state drive set to be light and tiny.
The Z-P140 solid-state drive from Intel is smaller than a penny.
Credit: Intel
The chipmaker announced late Friday that it is making a solid-state drive for handheld devices that is smaller than a penny and weighs less than a drop of water. The Z-P140 drives will be available in 2GB and 4GB sizes, and are intended for low-power, rugged devices, presumably gadgets like Internet tablets, smartphones, portable video players, and handheld computers. Intel says it is 400 times smaller than a 1.8-inch hard drive.
The drives use flash memory to store data, and have a PATA (parallel ATA) interface. They are an option for the upcoming Menlow platform Intel is releasing for mobile devices next year. They will read data at 40 megabytes per second, write at 30 megabytes per second, and draw 300 milliwatts of power while in use, and 1.1 milliwatts while in sleep mode.
The drives will go into mass production in the beginning of 2008.
