Cornice, a well-known producer of ultra-small hard disk drives, broadened its lineup of “Storage Element” disks with 1GB, 1.5GB and 2.0GB models. The miniature HDDs can fit into typical key-chain and target the markets where historically flash memory was dominating.

 Since its introduction in June of 2003, the Cornice Storage Element has enjoyed rapid adoption in consumer electronic (CE) devices from companies like Philips, RCA, Rio, and Creative Labs. Measuring only 42.8mm x 36.4mm x 5mm and weighing only 14.5 grams, the Cornice SE HDDs are compatible with IDE standard and offer enough performance for music and video playback while still maintaining low power consumption.

“The Cornice 1.0GB SE enables a new market for MP3 players. Consumer devices can now be manufactured to offer more than 250 songs in a sleek, affordable package, sold below the current retail price of today's popular flash-based players that offer only a quarter of that capacity,” the company said.

The 1GB Cornice SE is immediately available in addition to 1.5GB and 2GB SKUs. Pricing is based on volume in quantities of 100 000 and greater. Products utilizing this SE are expected to be on retail shelves as early as July 2004.