Chip maker, Intel has announced the launch of its new SSD 310 Series of Solid State Drives, which are about a forth of the size, by area of normal 2.5 inch Hard Disk Drives.

The new drives will measure only 3cm x 5cm and is already expected to be used for use in notebooks and laptops for dual drive use as well as stand alone uses. The drives could be used as the primary storage device, thus eliminating the need for a hard disk drives.

Meanwhile, Lenovo has confirmed that it will be the drives in its ThinkPad range. Tom Butler, director of Lenovo’s ThinkPad range said that the new drives will offer ‘advantages of a full-performance Intel SSD paired with the storage of a hard disk’ in a small system.

The SSD 310 is available in with 40GB storage and with read/write speeds of 170MBps/35MBps and 80GB capacity with read/write speeds of 200MBps/80MBps. The company is also planning to launch a 300GB 1.8-inch solid state disk next year with a 25nm manufacturing process.