Motion joins solid state drive bandwagon

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 09 May 2007 10:21

Business IT - Technology

Mobility specialist Motion Computing is joining the trend to solid state mass storage by adding the option of a 32G flash-based drive to its LS800 tablet PC.

Such drives have the same form factor and interfaces as notebook disk drives, so vendors can readily incorporate them into existing designs. Late last month, Dell began offering a similar option for its Latitude D420 ultra-mobile and D620 ATG semi-rugged notebooks.

"Solid state is an excellent storage technology option for ultra-mobile computers," said Jillian Mansolf, vice president of marketing at Motion. "From casinos interested in offering a portable gaming experience to field service workers computing while walking and standing, the LS800 with SSD [solid state drive] helps protect data despite everyday knocks, bumps and jolts."

According to Motion's testing, the drive's lower power consumption extends the LS800's battery life by around 10 percent despite delivering faster data access.

The flash-based drive is a $US599 option for the LS800, slightly more than the $US549 charged by Dell. The Australian price was not announced, nor was the drive's manufacturer revealed.