The "A-Drive" represents the next generation of storage innovation providing capacities of up to 1 TB HardDiskDrive(HDD) with 32 GB Solid State Drive (SSD).
The new PS3 will come in 3 models including extended built in HardDiskDrive(HDD) capacity of 500GB model and 250GB model, and a newly added 12GB flash memory model initially for Europe only.
Even though adding disks and heads increases the cost of the harddiskdrive, in the current environment of higher HDD prices due to shortages from the Thailand floods of 2011 gives some additional leeway for higher prices to pay for the additional components.