Initially aimed at enterprise users as the first step toward mass consumer adoption, SanDisk SSD is intended to keep mobile PCs working in the toughest of conditions. 

Previously, large capacity flash-based drives had been used primarily by the military, aerospace and telecom industries, which demanded high performance and reliability under challenging environmental conditions. But now the declining cost of NAND flash memory has made SSD a viable alternative to existing technologies in a wider variety of applications, including mobile PCs aimed at enterprise and consumer users, the company says.    
 
"This is an important milestone for SanDisk in our quest to create markets for flash storage solutions for consumers in the personal computing space, says Eli Harari, SanDisk CEO. The 32GB SSD represents the fifth generation of flash-based solid state drives developed by systems, which we recently acquired.

Once we begin shipping the 32GB SSD for notebook PCs, we expect to see its increasing adoption in the coming years as we continue to reduce the cost of flash memory.

It is projected that inclusion of the SanDisk 32GB SSD in a notebook PC could increase the end-user price by around $600 in the first half of 2007, he adds.