Samsung said it is pushing to standardize its new SSD form factor and its pin layout specifications at . Samsung said it could make the form factor a standard as early as the third quarter of this year.

Unsworth said miniPCIe SSD cards are nothing new: OCZ Technology Inc. and Super Talent Technology Corp., along with several other manufacturers, produce them. What is notable about Samsung's entry into the market is how it may impact an effort to standardize the smaller SSD form factor for netbooks.

"If it is an Open Standard and it has PC [reseller] support, then it will benefit from competition and will help propel the standard," Unsworth said.

Samsung's new netbook-targeted SSDs are available with optional full disk encryption for data protection.

Currently, most netbooks use hard-disk drives because they are less expensive -- at least at higher capacity points, Unsworth said. But SSDs have a clear advantage in size and performance compared to hard-disk drives, which Samsung's new form factor is exploiting.