Transcend announces 16 GB 'solid state disk'

Taipei (Taiwan) - Transcend is jumping on flash hard drive bandwagon and today announced a 16 GB version of its Express Card series that now carries a ’solid state disk’ label.

It probably depends on your point of view whether this new Express Card is really a solid state disk in its traditional meaning or if it is just a marketing term to make a product more attractive than it really it is.

The ’Express Card/34 SSD’ series is available with capacities ranging from 2 GB to 16 GB and has enough room to take advantage of some flash acceleration features. You may not want to boot your operating system from the card, but it does support Windows Vista’s ReadyBoost.

The suggested retail price of the 8 GB card is $142, while the 16 GB model rings in at $284. That is about in line with current flash memory prices, but close to the $350 of Sandisk’s upcoming 2.5" 32 GB SSD. But then, Sandisk won’t be offering its SSD to consumers, at least not at this price, which makes devices such as the Transcend Express Card an affordable solution for users who are looking for SSD functionality today.