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The SATA II drives can to read data at 100MB/sec and and write at 80MB/sec, making it up to 60% faster than SATA I drives and two to five times faster than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs).

It also consumes nearly 75% less power than typical HDD and is considerably lighter.

"While there will always be a market for HDDs,

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we see growing demand for our new SSDs, especially now that they are available with the SATA II interface," said Jim Elliott, director, flash marketing, Samsung Semiconductor. "SSD technology is especially viable for the business and high-end consumer notebook markets because of its outstanding performance, as well as the added value gained from virtually no downtime and faster operating speeds."

Elliot said that the new drives will be available as an option within the next few weeks in select Dell and Alienware notebooks. Apple's plans, as ever, are a closely guarded secret.

Samsung plans to launch a 128GB SSD towards the middle of this year, which it is expected to cost around $2,000 (£1,020), roughly what Apple currently charges to add an SSD to a MacBook Air.

However that will be dwarfed by Bitmicro's 832GB drive which is scheduled for the second half of this year. The price has yet to be announced.