SanDisk Reveals World's Smallest SSD, the 'iSSD'

By Marcus Yam
published

No, this is not Apple's SSD... unless it ends up in a Mac.

SanDisk has announced what it claims to be the world's smallest SSD. Of course, with SSDs being made up of flash memory, it shouldn't be hard to imagine just how much storage one could fit on a drive the size of a postage stamp.

SanDisk calles it the integrated SSD, or iSSD for short, and it's designed for tablet PCs and ultra-thin notebooks. The iSSD is the first flash SSD device to support the industry standard SATA interface in a small BGA (Ball Grid Array) package that can be soldered onto any motherboard, and is fast enough to use as a boot drive.

The iSSD is advertised by SanDisk as offering 160MB/sec sequential read and 100MB/sec sequential write speeds. It measuring 16mm x 20mm x 1.85mm and weighs less than one gram.

The SanDisk iSSD is available now for sampling to OEMs in capacities ranging from 4GB to 64GB.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
43 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Ciuy
    why does everything have to start with "i" nowadays
    /???
    Reply
  • captainnemojr
    I wonder if Apple will sue them for using "i". Either that, or it's a great marketing tactic for San Disk. "Hey Apple, I'll give you exclusive "iSSD" rights for your "i" products for i$$$$$$$$."
    Reply
  • Mark Heath
    Seems like a decent idea for its usage.
    Reply
  • coopchennick
    64GB???! I was expecting like 1
    Reply
  • nukem950
    This is really neat. It would be cool if motherboard manufacturers would all start adding these to their boards so I could backup critical data or just use it as a boot drive
    Reply
  • samely
    Ciuywhy does everything have to start with "i" nowadays/???Because the world has become a proper grammar/spelling failure. And thank you to Apple for perpetuating it.
    Reply
  • dman3k
    captainnemojrI wonder if Apple will sue them for using "i". Either that, or it's a great marketing tactic for San Disk. "Hey Apple, I'll give you exclusive "iSSD" rights for your "i" products for i$$$$$$$$."so does everything that start with "i" have to do with the fruit company now?
    Reply
  • gtvr
    Ciuywhy does everything have to start with "i" nowadays/???
    Remember when everything started with an "e"? Ah, the good old days.
    Reply
  • Fetal
    Thats a marvel.
    Reply
  • JonnyDough
    gtvrRemember when everything started with an "e"? Ah, the good old days.
    eWaste became a bad moniker. We have yet to start talking about iWaste, nobody wants to wear that one, even though we all make iWaste (even those of us who don't buy overpriced products from a company that tries to censor it's consumers).
    Reply