On Tuesday, Asustek Computer Incorporated introduced an ultrathin, light netbook called the S121, which is fitted with both the yet to be released Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system and the the world’s largest solid-state drive (SSD) at 512GB.

The new notebook is less than an inch thick, measures 11.7 inches by 8.3 inches, weighs approximately 3 pounds and also has a touch screen that operates software developed by Asustek for easy-touch navigation.

David Fester, general marketing manager at Microsoft’s OEM division, stated during a conference held before the Consumer Electronics Show, which is scheduled to begin Thursday in Las Vegas, that Microsoft was „deeply partnered” with Asus concerning Windows 7.

Nevertheless, when the notebook is made available the following month, it will not come with the Windows 7 OS, given that the latter is set to be rolled out in full version in 2010, although some experts have said they believed it would hit the markets in mid-2009.

Jonney Shih, chairman of Asus, revealed that the S121 would be a bit pricey, approximately $1,649, due to 512GB SSD, for which the company used its own technology.

Asustek’s 512GB SSD, which is said to load software faster than a hard disk drive, comes shortly after Toshiba introduced its own 512GB SSD for laptops.

Although SSDs feature better power efficiency than HDDs, they present the shortcomings of being more expensive and having a smaller lifespan than the latter, which only rendered a few other companies to announce such large capacity SSDs.

The S121 is also fitted with 1.33-GHz Intel Atom microprocessor, but no further details about the gadget have been given out yet.