Sandisk today rolled out a 32GB flash-based hard drive made for commercial notebook computers. These new, 1.8-inch drives store data on flash memory chips instead of the usual magnetic platters on hard drives.

These smaller drives promise smaller, possibly more efficient notebooks but the company has refused to disclose which manufacturers will be integrating these new drives. It did say however that notebooks sporting the drive may come out as early as the first half of 2007.

Manufacturers however, will first need to balance the relatively small storage capacity of these drives and the reported steep production costs.

Via CNET

SanDisk Corporation has unveiled its plan to use it's Compact Flash® cards in the new Grass Valley™ Infinity™ Series Digital Media Camcorder. The camcorder would feature slots for two CompactFlash cards and would be the first to use non-proprietary and removable flash memory cards. The camcorders would be available by next Saturday in the United States.

The flash cards when compared to the traditional storage devices like the videotape is a better option as not only are the movie clips of better quality , they are also reusable thus more economical. The cards are extremely durable and reliable and allows for shooting in a wider range of shooting environment. Another advantage of the flash cards is the fact that during editing users would save time as content from memory cards can be directly transferred to the PC. The cards for now would be available in storage capacities of up to 8 gigabytes which in time would further be expanded. No word on pricing yet. www.sandisk.com.