Pineberry Pi, creator of add-on units for the Raspberry Pi vary of single-board computer systems (SBCs), has introduced the primary — unofficial — M.2 {Hardware} Hooked up on Prime (HAT) for the Raspberry Pi 5, permitting using high-speed Non-Risky Reminiscence Specific (NVMe) storage and extra with the board.
When the Raspberry Pi 5 was unveiled, one in all its most highly-anticipated options was a free PCI Specific Gen. 2 lane introduced out to a connector on the left-hand aspect of the board. Beforehand the reserve of the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 household, the PCIe connectivity promised help for high-speed storage and the potential to increase the board with different high-performance peripherals — probably together with graphics playing cards, community playing cards, and machine-learning accelerators, pending software program help.
Pineberry Pi has crushed Raspberry Pi to the punch and develop into the primary firm to indicate off a fully-functional M.2 PCIe HAT for the Raspberry Pi 5. (📷: Pineberry Pi)
Whereas the Raspberry Pi 5 has now launched, although, the official M.2 HAT accent which turns the FFC connector into one thing extra simply used has not — and to this point there is no phrase of a launch date. Pineberry Pi, then, is hoping to be first to market with its personal third-party different to the M.2 HAT: the HatDrive! Prime.
Designed to connect to the general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) header on the prime of the Raspberry Pi and to the PCIe FFC connector with a versatile cable, the HatDrive! Prime brings the PCIe lane out as an M.2 M-key slot — with mounting factors for NVMe SSDs in 2230 and 2242 sizes. The corporate additionally claims that the board helps PCIe Gen. 3 speeds on a Raspberry Pi 5 — whereas Raspberry Pi’s personal model will probably be formally restricted to Gen. 2, albeit with a software program override out there.
The corporate additionally has an alternate for these utilizing the Raspberry Pi 5 Lively Cooler to maintain their processor’s temperature tamed: the HatDrive! Backside, which because the title suggests sits beneath the Raspberry Pi 5 fairly than on prime. This model, the corporate explains, retains the highest of the Raspberry Pi 5 free for air flow — and makes use of a bigger out there footprint to help 2242 and the extra frequent 2280 NVMe drive sizes.
The corporate says each HAT and “HAB” (pictured) variations of the boards help PCIe Gen. 3 speeds, a step up from the deliberate official M.2 HAT. (📷: Pineberry Pi)
Each variants embody an I2C interface for energy monitoring and diagnostics, Pineberry Pi says, and the boards must be prepared quickly. “We’ve accomplished the engineering and testing phases,” the corporate claims of its progress on the challenge. “All vital parts have been acquired and we at the moment are commencing mass manufacturing.”
Pre-orders for the HatDrive! Prime and HatDrive! Backside at the moment are open on the Pineberry Pi web site, priced at €20 and €25.99 (round $22 and $28) respectively. No agency delivery date has but been offered.