Samsung has begun sending out hybrid hard drives to computer manufacturers, according to a variety of reports coming out of Asia today.

It's now offering the MH80 series of 2.5in drives, each of which incorporates 128MB or 256MB of Flash cache in addition to 80, 120 or 160GB of magnetic storage.

The drives work with Windows Vista's ReadyDrive system, which drops frequently accessed content into the Flash bank not only to provide faster access to that data but also to reduce the need to spin up the hard drive. The upshot: data is loaded more quickly and the PC's overall power consumption reduced. For more see Register Hardware's Windows Vista for laptops special report.

Samsung indicated use of the hybrid drive could add up to 30 minutes to a laptop's battery life.