Tuesday, September 15th 2015
MSI Unveils Turbo U.2 Host Card
Ever wondered why nobody made a SATA-Express SSD? We guess it's probably because of its IDE-sized connector. The SSD industry is turning its attention to other connector standards, such as M.2 and the newer U.2 (formerly known as SFF-8639). The U.2 is essentially a cabled M.2 connector, designed for drives in more common form-factors, such as 2.5-inch. The connector itself is more narrow, although it has the same pin-count as M.2, and the same bandwidth (up to 32 Gb/s with current PCI-Express standard).
ASUS debuted the connector on its flagship Maximus VIII Extreme motherboard, but MSI doesn't plan to be left behind. MSI released a new accessory that converts M.2 slots into a U.2 port. The MSI Turbo U.2 Host Card has wiring to support 32 Gb/s physical layer. The card could be included in MSI's upcoming high-end motherboards, and looking at the way it's branded and packaged, it could even be sold separately. One of the first U.2 drives is Intel SSD 750 in its 2.5-inch avatar.
ASUS debuted the connector on its flagship Maximus VIII Extreme motherboard, but MSI doesn't plan to be left behind. MSI released a new accessory that converts M.2 slots into a U.2 port. The MSI Turbo U.2 Host Card has wiring to support 32 Gb/s physical layer. The card could be included in MSI's upcoming high-end motherboards, and looking at the way it's branded and packaged, it could even be sold separately. One of the first U.2 drives is Intel SSD 750 in its 2.5-inch avatar.
12 Comments on MSI Unveils Turbo U.2 Host Card
I don't see one on Asrock's nor Asus boards...
EDIT: Seems to be a signal amplifier, guess it could be good for longer or cheaper cables...
be.msi.com/product/mb/TURBO-U.2-HOST-CARD.html
I can see a real mess because there is so many different standards which you use to connect a drive internally to the motherboard. I swear on SATA 3 because there are no compatibility problems out there and unless there is one universal standard which will be succesor to SATA 3 I will be sticking with it.
When people use so many different interfaces inside PCs it makes compatibility problems harder.
They should just make more compact SATA connector (and SATA power) and better software interface like "NVMe over SATA" and use it instead of SATA, SATA Express, U.2, M.2, mSATA.
3D SSDs are already small enough they just need a smaller universal connector and a new standard defined size.
I would not mind only two (PCIe gets a pass since it is not exactly a consumer like) connectors like SATA and some other one but now we get another one and that takes it too far.
Sata Express is Dead.
M.2 is the successor to mSATA
U.2 is just M.2 with a cabled interface.
Basically before we had mSATA for laptops and SATA for desktops.
Now we have only M.2 going forward, desktops using the same interface as laptops.
So you see it's less confusing now than it was before ;)
m.2 and u.2 are the successors.
mSata and SataExpress were stepping stones to getting there.
Nvme over sata is Sata express...
www.sata-io.org/sites/default/files/documents/NVMe%20and%20AHCI%20as%20SATA%20Express%20Interface%20Options%20-%20Whitepaper_.pdf
Nvme direct is u.2
Which requires a card, plug on motherboard or adapter from m.2
They aren't yet in mass cost availability yet to warrant a port on the motherboard.
If you want pcie speed you do m.2 or u.2 adapted from it.
USB 3.1 Gen 1 - 5Gbps
USB 3.1 Gen 2 - 10Gbps
Plus, the few drives that are available and work over PCIe/NVMe only really improve the sequential transfer rates and very little on 4k reads/writes. Thus, in day-to-day usage, you won't fell much difference anyway. At least not today. Sure, manufacturers love to sell you "futureproofing" because it costs them very little and you can't hold them accountable if/when they don't deliver. But that doesn't make your current hardware any less capable.