Recent progress in the development of a compact, high-repetition rate, ultrashort-pulse laser-driven hard-x-ray source based on the combination of a femtosecond laser system with an x-ray diode is reported. The x-ray source is characterized in terms of spectral and spatial properties. Hard-x-ray fluxes exceeding 2×10 10 photons/s (emitted in 4π sr) are realized at a repetition rate of 250 kHz. A comparison with available laser-plasma hard-x-ray sources is presented. Numerical modeling is performed which proves that picosecond and sub-picosecond hard-x-ray pulses can be produced with this source. Further prospects and possible applications of the femtosecond laser-driven xray diode are outlined.