SanDisk has started shipping solid-state disks that it designed specifically for the fledging netbook market. The pSSD P2 and S2 are two solid-state discs that will come in various capacities such as 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64 GB.

Performance of the pSSD is measured in terms of "virtual revolutions per minute" or vRPM. Based on specifications supplied by SanDisk, P2 and S2 will offer a native performance comparable to a 9,000 RPM hard disk. SanDisk's nCache technology, which uses nonvolatile write cache, is designed to boost the read speeds. According to SanDisk, nCache will offer up to five times the speed of the rated vRPM in terms of burst performance.

Prices have not been announced, though I would expect them to be substantially cheaper than existing SSDs that are being bundled onto high-end laptops.

In effect, the pSSD P2 and S2 are low-end SSDs to cater to the lower prices of netbooks. According to Eric Bone, SanDisk's director or retail product marketing, storage can account for as much as 25 percent of a netbooks cost. As such, the ability to put a lower-priced SSD on the market, should prove a popular option for netbook makers.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article from PC Magazine
- check out this article from eWeek

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