South Korean consumer electronics maker, Samsung said on Wednesday it has begun shipping its hybrid hard drive to the commercial marketplace. Samsung’s MH80 Series hybrid hard drive is offered in 80GB, 120GB and 160GB capacities.

The hybrid hard drive has been optimized to work in conjunction with Windows Vista capable notebook PC’s, Samsung’s MH80 is a 2.5-inch hybrid hard drive with 128 or 256 megabytes of flash memory. It combines a hard disk drive with a OneNAND Flash cache and Microsoft’s ReadyDrive software, offering faster boot and resume times, increased battery life and greater reliability compared to traditional magnetic media technology.

The hybrid hard drive preserves the high densities of magnetic storage technology, while the advanced NAND flash technology enhances the overall value with lowered power consumption, higher reliability and faster read/write access than traditional hard drives. The MH80 features Samsung’s ReadyBoot technology, a new feature included in Microsoft’s Vista operating system.

The hybrid hard drive offers up to a 50 percent reduction in boot and resume times from traditional magnetic media technology. In addition, the drive consumes 70-90 percent less power than a traditional hard drive, which extends the battery life by 30 minutes before a recharge is needed Samsung said.

The company said that its MH80 also offers up to five times the reliability of traditional notebook PC hard drives. As the drive’s platters are idle 99 percent of the time, the MH80 eliminates the need for the hard disk to constantly spin whenever a computer is operating on battery power. As a result, the drive is much less susceptible to shock damage, resulting in less data loss and fewer needed repairs. Furthermore, the drive operates at a lower temperature than a regular hard drive, reducing the likelihood of damage and hard drive failure.

The MH80 hybrid hard drive is currently shipping to select OEM customers and will soon be available in retail and commercial outlets.