SanDisk Corporation has announced a high-performance solid state drive (SSD) for the retail channel.

The SanDisk Extreme SSD is up to 10 times faster than a 7,200 RPM hard disk drive, enabling computer users to quickly boot and shut down their systems, launch applications faster and reduce wait times. The drive is also more durable and power efficient, delivering a reliable computing experience while maximising battery life.

It can boot a PC in less than 16 seconds and quickly shut down the system, delivering a significantly improved user experience to desktop and notebook users. For gamers, the SanDisk Extreme SSD can launch applications in a fraction of the time and reduce in-game delays by generating environments faster during sequence transitions. This is particularly important during massively multiplayer online role-playing games.

"Computer wait times are becoming a thing of the past thanks to SSDs," said Kent Perry, director, product marketing, SanDisk. "Our SanDisk Extreme SSD delivers virtually instant boot and shutdown times along with faster application launches."

The SanDisk Extreme SSD is now available worldwide in 120GB and 240GB capacities at $189.99 and $399.99 respectively. A 480GB version of the drive will ship later this year at $749.99.