Raspberry Pi 5 Official M.2 HAT Now Available for NVMe Drives and AI Accelerators
Raspberry Pi 5 was released in October 2024 with powerful components like the Broadcom BCM2712 2.4GHz Quad-Core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A76 processor with 512KB per-core L2 caches and a 2MB shared L3 cache, as well as a VideoCore VII graphics card capable of supporting OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan 1.2 graphics technologies.
While these upgraded components are quite attractive for Raspberry Pi fans wanting a faster computer, the Raspberry Pi 5 included another appealing feature, namely support for attaching M.2 M-key peripherals directly on the board through a so-called M.2 HAT, which will dramatically boost the performance.
LinuxGizmos:
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Introducing the Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+: Enhanced Connectivity for Raspberry Pi 5 Introducing the Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+: Enhanced Connectivity for Raspberry Pi 5
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced the Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+, an expansion board designed to extend the connectivity options of the Raspberry Pi 5. This HAT+ facilitates the connection of M.2 peripherals, including NVMe drives and AI accelerators, to the Raspberry Pi 5’s PCIe 2.0 interface, supporting data transfer speeds of up to 500 MB/s.
The Raspberry Pi 5’s single-lane PCI Express 2.0 interface is accessible via a 16-pin, 0.5mm-pitch FPC connector. The M.2 HAT+ M Key adapter board converts this connector to a subset of the M.2 standard, supporting devices with the M.2 M key edge connector in the 2230 and 2242 form factors. Additionally, the board can supply up to 3A of power to connected M.2 devices, ensuring they receive adequate power for optimal performance.
CNX Software:
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Official Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ launched for $12 - CNX Software
The official Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ is finally out for $12. The add-on board allows users to connect M.2 M-key peripherals, mainly NVMe SSDs, but also AI accelerators, to their Raspberry Pi 5 leveraging the PCIe connector on the(relatively) new SBC.
We have to stress “official” because it’s been possible to do the exact same thing with third-party boards from PineBerry (now PineBoards), Waveshare, Pimoroni, and Geekworm for about half a year. I also had the opportunity to review the GEEKWORM X1001 and Waveshare M.2 PCIe HAT+ with Cytron MAKERDISK SSDs last month. But let’s have a look at what the official Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ has to offer.