Mushkin (http://www.mushkin.com) will begin shipping what it says is the world’s largest capacity mSATA Solid-State Drive in January for US$499.

It delivers a “colossal” 480GB of storage capacity on a single mSATA module, according to Brian Flood, director of Product Development at Mushkin. The company managed to to fit eight NAND flash chips and a controller on a mSATA PCB and it “was no easy feat,” he adds.

Mushkin’s Atlas 480GB mSATA solid-state drive (model number MKNSSDAT480GB) will go on sale in the U.S. in early January at select resellers and distributors. Worldwide distribution will begin in the middle of the month.