Boise (ID) – Micron today announced that it will jump on the NAND flash-based solid state disk (SSD) train. The first drives are expected to become available in the first quarter of 2008.

Micron said that it will be offering the SSDs for computing, enterprise server and networking applications under a newly created “RealSSD” brand. The disk drives will be introduced in 1.8” and 2.5” form factors and 32 GB and 64 GB capacities. All models will integrate a native SATA II interface as well as a single-chip four-channel controller supporting native command queuing, the company said.

The SSDs are sampling now and are scheduled to go into mass production in the first quarter of next year.

The RealSSD product line will also include embedded USB-based storage devices ranging from 1 GB to 8 GB to store an entire operating system within an industrial PC or blade server system. Micron said it is sampling these products now and expects mass production to begin by the end of 2007. The company will also offer the RealSSD Module, a low profile module storage device only 25 mm high, less than 4 mm thick and 133.5 mm long.

 “SSDs are becoming the new storage medium, fundamentally altering the way data is stored,” said Dean Klein, Micron vice president of memory system development, in a prepared statement. “The storage market is ripe for innovation, and it’s an opportunity Micron is embracing given our expertise in NAND.”