Samsung today announced that its three solid state disk (SSD) drives have been officially recognized by Microsoft as fully qualified Windows-compatible peripherals.

After thorough testing by its Windows Hardware Qualification Lab (WHQL), Microsoft has validated that Samsung SSDs meet all of the requirements for storage media in a Windows operating environment.

Samsung's SSDs also enhance system performance. The SSDs have a data read speed of 57MB/s and data write speed of 32MB/s, more than double the performance levels of a 1.8-inch HDD. Moreover, the SSDs provide a performance boost of up to 50 times that of a 1.8 HDD when servicing small, random data "read" requests. Such faster speeds shorten application program operating time as well as system boot time.

Samsung's new solid state memory solutions also enable longer battery life. Their power usage rate in an operational mode is less than 0.5W and in sleep mode just 40mW, which extends battery usage up to 30 minutes.

With no moving parts, Samsung's SSDs provide higher reliability with greater resistance against vibration, shock, extreme temperature, noise and heat emission.

Microsoft has certified a 32GB 1.8-inch sized Samsung SSD, a 32GB slim-type Samsung SSD (53.6x70.6x3.0mm) and a 16GB small-type SSD (56x48x3.8mm). The new sizes support the physical requirements of sub-notebook PCs.

The SSDs' substantial size and weight advantages are expected to further encourage a steady adoption of SSDs into a number of PC applications, such as in ultra mobile PCs, "ruggedized" notebooks and special industrial applications.