Patriot Memory has introduced a Mac-specific solid-state drive it claims was specifically designed for the platform.

The company didn't say how the drive - dubbed the Koi - has been tweaked to be more Mac friendly, so we'll just have to wait for independent tests to see whether sticking one of these into your MacBook Pro is better than using a bog-standard Sata SSD like, say, Intel's X25-M.

There are two Kois: a 128GB model and a 256GB version. Both have sequential read and write speeds of 260MB/s and 180MB/s, respectively. Patroit didn't state random read and write performance figures - usually SSD technology's weak point - but the drives have 64MB of DRam cache, presumably to buffer random writes to counter this.

Both drives use the 2.5in form-factor and have a 3Gb/s Sata interface. Patriot did not provide prices. ®