Samsung today announced volume production of SSDs (solid state drives) that support the Mini-Serial ATA (mSATA) interface. The drives are designed for use in ultra-slim notebooks such as Ultrabook PCs.

The new Samsung mSATA SSDs will be available in 256, 128 and 64 gigabyte (GB) densities as main storage devices, and also at 32GB for caching. They measure 50.95 x 30 x 3.8 millimeters and weigh a mere eight grams.

The new SSDs will be part of the Samsung PM830 product family that was introduced earlier this year. They make use of Samsung's 20 nanometer class NAND flash memory components which incorporate the toggle DDR interface.

Utilizing high-performance SATA 6Gb/s controllers based on Samsung's own technology, the new mSATA SSDs can operate at a sequential read and write speeds of 500 megabytes per second (MB/s) and of 260MB/s respectively, under optimum conditions.

In addition, the Samsung mSATA SSDs feature a hardware-based security solution including 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) protection, which will prevent unauthorized access to data on a lost or stolen notebook PC.

Beginning this year, the market for Ultrabook-class mobile PCs has been growing rapidly and is expected to expand beyond that of tablet PCs as early as next year due to more advanced processors and use of the Windows 8 operating system. According to market research firm IHS iSuppli, the Ultrabook share of global notebook shipments will exceed 40 percent in 2015.