Solid state drives (SSD)
Solid State Drives are data storage devices that utilise solid state memory instead of the moving parts of a standard hard drive. This means that solid state drives are extremely reliable and durable, without the risk of mechanical failure, as well as silent and extremely fast. They come in many different formats, from industry specific products designed for particular tasks to more consumer-led ranges like SanDisk's internal solid state drives and Lexar's ExpressCard SSDs - which are portable data storage devices that plug directly into laptops. Although they are only just entering the consumer market (check out the higher end version of the MacBook Air with its 64Gb solid state hard drive) - it is expected that by 2010 the majority of laptops will be sold with flash-based hard drives.