Raspberry Pi launches NVMe M.2 SSDs starting at $30

What conscionable happened? The Raspberry Pi Foundation has launched a bid of branded SSDs and SSD kits arsenic accessories for nan Raspberry Pi 5. They travel conscionable days aft nan institution introduced low-cost Raspberry Pi SD cards and a silicone bumper guidelines for nan Pi 5. The instauration besides precocious unveiled nan Raspberry Pi AI Camera Kit, aft showcasing it astatine nan Embedded World 2024 waste and acquisition show successful April.

The M.2 2230 NVMe SSDs travel successful 2 capacities: 256GB and 512GB. The erstwhile is already disposable for acquisition from authorized retailers successful nan US, while nan second is up for pre-order, pinch an estimated shipping model betwixt precocious November and early December. Pricing starts astatine $30 for nan 256GB exemplary and $45 for nan the 512GB variant. Full kits, which see nan Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+, spell for $40 and $55, respectively.

It's worthy noting that Raspberry Pi initially claimed nan drives were PCIe Gen 2 compliant, but immoderate users person pointed retired that Gen 3 speeds tin beryllium enabled via raspi-config. However, nan latest merchandise pages propose that they are PCIe Gen 3 compliant by default, though this has yet to beryllium officially confirmed by Raspberry Pi.

In position of performance, Raspberry Pi claims that nan 256GB NVMe thrust offers 40,000 IOPS for 4kB random sounds and 70,000 IOPS for 4kB random writes, while nan 512GB exemplary is said to present 50,000 IOPS for 4kB random sounds and 90,000 IOPS for 4kB random writes.

As noted by Tom's Hardware, a sticker connected nan 512GB exemplary suggests that nan caller SSDs are manufactured by Chinese flash retention supplier Biwin, which supplies SSDs to PC makers for illustration HP and Acer. Biwin besides showcased its self-branded user SSDs and representation modules astatine Computex 2024 successful Taiwan earlier this year.

The Raspberry Pi 5 was unveiled almost precisely a twelvemonth ago, featuring respective hardware upgrades complete its predecessor. Powered by a 2.4 GHz quad-core, 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 processor, it is astir 3 times faster than nan Raspberry Pi 4, released successful 2019. The Pi 5 besides introduces caller features, specified arsenic a powerfulness fastener and a PCI Express port, which tin beryllium utilized to connect M.2 SSDs pinch nan thief of nan M.2 HAT+ and various third-party adapters.