ssd News - Page 2 of 17 - CNX Software

August 18, 2025August 17, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

BIWIN Mini SSD offers an alternative to the microSD Express standard

There’s now an alternative to microSD Express if you want ultra-fast storage in a tiny form factor. Meet BIWIN Mini SSD storage with a size (17x15mm) only slightly bigger than a microSD Card and a read speed of up to 3700 MB/s. The new Mini SSD form factor was introduced at Embedded World 2025 last March, but it only recently got some news coverage as mini SSD slots will be found in the upcoming GPD Win 5 handheld gaming PC and ONEXPLAYER Super X gaming tablet. BIWIN Mini SSD highlights: 3D TLC NAND technology Integrates the controller and flash memory modules Interface – PCIe Gen4x2 with NVMe 1.4 protocol Read speeds up to 3700 MB/s Write speeds up to 3400 MB/s Capacity – 512 GB to 2 TB Features – Dynamic SLC caching, wear leveling, TRIM, and garbage collection Dimensions – 17 x 15 x 1.4mm; note: a microSD card measures 15 […]

August 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Pironman 5 Mini is a cheaper Tower PC case for the Raspberry Pi 5

If you found the Pironman 5 and Pironman 5 Max Tower PC cases for the Raspberry Pi 5 pretty cool, but had a hard time justifying paying much more for the enclosure than for the board itself, SunFounder has an update for you. The company has now introduced the Pironman 5 Mini Tower PC enclosure with a similar, yet smaller design, fewer features, and easier assembly, bringing the price down to $45.99. That means the OLED information display, most RGB LEDs, the oversized tower cooler, the micro HDMI to HDMI adapter board, and more are all gone. Pironman 5 Mini features: Compatible SBC – Raspberry Pi 5 only. The Raspberry Pi 4 won’t work, and I can’t think of another SBC with two micro HDMI ports and the exact same layout as the Pi 5. Storage MicroSD card slot Optional NVMe SSD via M.2 M-Key (2230/2242/2260/2280) PCIe 2.0/3.0 socket Video […]

August 7, 2025August 7, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

VisionFive 2 Lite low-cost RISC-V SBC launched for $19.90 and up (Crowdfunding)

StarFive VisionFive 2 Lite is a low-cost, credit card-sized RISC-V SBC powered by a 1.25 GHz JH7110S quad-core 64-bit processor and equipped with 2GB to 8GB RAM, and a microSD card slot for storage. It’s the little brother of the VisionFive 2 Pico-ITX SBC introduced in 2022, but in a more compact Raspberry Pi-like form factor with an M.2 2242 socket for storage, Gigabit Ethernet, optional WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4, four USB ports, HDMI 2.0, MIPI DSI and CSI connector, and a 40-pin GPIO header. VisionFive 2 Lite specifications: SoC – StarFive JH7110S (a low-cost version of the JH7110 clocked up to 1.25 GHz) CPU – Quad-core 64-bit RISC-V (SiFive U74 – RV64GC) processor @ up to 1.25 GHz GPU – Imagination BXE-4-32 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 1.2, Vulkan 1.2 VPU 4Kp60 H.265/H.264 video decoder 1080p30 H.265 video encoder JPEG encoder/decoder System Memory – 2GB, 4GB, or […]

July 17, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

P250Q-M80 M.2 NVMe SSD supports one-click data destruction by software or hardware (smoke involved)

Team Group P250Q-M80 is a PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 SSD with up to 2TB capacity and a rather unique feature: one-click data destruction with software or hardware method. If you press a button for 5 to 10 seconds, the software method is triggered, and the SSD automatically wipes out all data. A longer 10-second or over press triggers the hardware method, which applies high voltage to the SSD to self-destruct a la Mission: Impossible with smoke and all. P250Q-M80 specifications: Host Interface – PCIe Gen4 x4, M-Key Flash Type – 3D TLC Capacity – 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB Sequential R/W – Up to 7,000 / 5,500MB/s Features – TRIM and SMART support; no thermal sensor, no external DRAM buffer Max. Power consumption – 1358mA @ 3.3V Dimensions – 80 x 22 x 3.5 mm Temperature Range – Operating: 0°C to +70°C; storage: -55°C to +95°C Humidity – 5% ~ […]

June 29, 2025July 9, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Pironman 5 Max Review – A fancy Raspberry Pi 5 Tower PC enclosure with dual M.2 PCI sockets for SSD and/or AI accelerator

SunFounder has sent me a review sample of the Pironman 5 Max Tower PC case for the Raspberry Pi 5 SBC. We had already reviewed the Pironman 5 last year, but the new Max model has various improvements, including a sleeker design made of black aluminum and semi-transparent black acrylic panels, a dual NVMe PiP expansion board for two M.2 NVMe SSDs (optionally in RAID 0/1 configuration), or one NVMe SSD and one AI accelerator module, a Tap-to-Wake feature for the OLED information display, and programmable RGB LEDs for the two fans. So the Pironman 5 Max deserves another review of its own. I’ll be doing an unboxing, going through the assembly instructions and software installation, before testing the new features, and finally, the cooling efficiency of the solution. Pironman 5 Max unboxing I received the Pironman 5 Max in its retail package along with a Raspberry Pi AI Kit […]

June 10, 2025June 11, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Adapter allows users to connect an M.2 NVMe SSD to a microSD Express card slot

The SD Association released the SD 7.1 standard with support for cards compliant with the microSD Express standard, enabling SSD-like performance on microSD cards by using a PCIe/NVMe interface, and more recent updates to the standard even enable speeds of up to 2GB/s. Saying that adoption has been slow would be an understatement, but things have changed recently, thanks to the introduction of the Nintendo Switch 2 portable game console, the first mainstream device to support the new standard. NVNT has had fun with it by designing a microSD Express to M.2 NVMe adapter (SDEX2M2) for the Nintendo Switch 2 or other devices supporting the microSD Express standard. The board design is pretty simple because it simply routes the PCIe signals from an M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD to the microSD Express connector. Three components can be found on the board: an M.2 2230 M-socket, a 220Ω ferrite bead, and an […]

May 29, 2025May 29, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

xMEMS µCooling fan-on-a-chip adds solid-state active cooling to SSDs for laptops and data centers

xMEMS Labs µCooling fan-on-a-chip solution now supports solid-state drives (SSDs) used in NVMe M.2 SSDs used in laptop PCs and enterprise E3.S form factor SSDs used in AI data centers with a temperature reduction of as much as 30%. The solution is based on the same technology as the xMEMS XMC-2400 1 mm-thin micro cooling fan-on-a-chip introduced last year, and aims to replace passive heat spreaders and flow from system fans with a hyper-localized active cooling directly to the NAND flash and controller ICs from within the SSD itself, making it mostly invisible to the user and enabling thinner and more dense designs. If the illustration pictured above matches reality, the xMEMS µCooling fan-on-a-chip is not placed in the chips themselves, contrary to a similar solution like AirJet, but in a strategic location on the SSD’s PCB, so that it can blow air to cool the chips. The chip is […]

May 23, 2025May 23, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Apacer PT25R-Pi HAT SSD for Raspberry Pi 5 integrates 60GB to 480GB BGA SSD, supports CoreSnapshot 2 Backup and Recovery function

Apacer PT25R-Pi HAT SSD is an upcoming HAT for the Raspberry Pi 5 or compatible SBCs with a PCIe FFC connector that integrates a BGA SSD chip with 60 GB to 480GB capacity, and supports advanced features like CoreSnapshot 2 backup and recovery solution, write protect, instant keychange for improved security, and power loss protection. We’ve already seen many Raspberry Pi HATs for NVMe SSDs, but those are typically designed for M.2 SSD modules. The PT25R-Pi HAT SSD comes with built-in storage on the HAT, so it’s basically plug-and-play, and all the user has to do is install the HAT and connect the cable. Apacer PT25R-Pi / PT25R-Pi+ HAT SSD specifications (preliminary): Storage – Built-in 60GB to 480GB SSD chip Connection to Raspberry Pi 5 40-pin GPIO header 16-pin Raspberry Pi FFC connector limited to PCIe Gen2 x1 for optimized power usage Advanced features Optional support for CoreSnapshot 2 backup […]