SanDisk has begun offering a 32GB solid-state drive to notebook makers less than a week after it was claimed Apple's rumoured sub-notebook will only contain Flash storage.

The launch also comes two months after SanDisk unveiled a similar drive based on the 1.8in form-factor favoured by manufacturers of personal media players.

SanDisk's 2.5in SATA 5000 drive connects across a Serial ATA interface. The company claimed the drive has a sustained read speed of 67MBps - fast enough to boot Windows Vista Enterprise edition on 30s, down from 48s on a standard, HDD-equipped notebook.

Power consumption is reduced too: from 1.9W to 0.9W during active operation, SanDisk claimed.

It doesn't come cheap, though - SanDisk is asking $350 a pop, and that's for "large volume orders". That's more than twice the price of a typical 2.5in, 5,400rpm, 160GB SATA hard drive - for a fifth of the storage capacity. Not an easy sell.

• Toshiba unveils sub-notebook HDD pair (26 February 2008)
• Cheap flash sinks SanDisk's profits (19 July 2007)
• SanDisk and DivX shake hands (27 June 2007)
• Hitachi spins up fastest encrypted laptop drive (11 May 2007)
• Samsung pitches 'ultra-silent' HDD (4 April 2007)
• Transcend touts ExpressCard Flash disk (3 April 2007)
• SanDisk and Hynix buddy up (21 March 2007)
• Samsung shiny laptops to sport next-gen Nvidia GPU (19 March 2007)
• Dutch reject USB flash drive tax (13 March 2007)
• Updated Intel 'Robson' Flash cache reborn as USB unit (12 March 2007)
• Apple 'MacBook Mini' to lose HDD, gain Flash? (9 March 2007)
• Samsung fields Flash cache fitted hybrid hard drive (7 March 2007)
• Sony to bring Flash-only UX1 UMPC to UK (29 January 2007)
• Intel's Flash cache module wins PCIe thumbs-up (15 January 2007)
• Vendors partner to promote Flash-fitted hard drives (4 January 2007)
• SanDisk spins Flash-fitted hard drive replacement (4 January 2007)