[HN Gopher] M.2 for Hackers - Connectors
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M.2 for Hackers - Connectors
Author : rcarmo
Score : 163 points
Date : 2022-11-07 08:06 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (hackaday.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (hackaday.com)
| svnt wrote:
| The article is so well-written I spent a few minutes confused and
| thinking I'd witnessed a new level of effort brought to marketing
| specific old-ish connectors to makers. But this person just loves
| doing this.
| jpm_sd wrote:
| I laughed at "old-ish" but then I had to look it up. Intel
| introduced NGFF / M.2 in 2012 - ten years ago!
|
| I've been tinkering with PCs for >30 years and thanks to
| subjective time dilation, if I'd had to guess, I would've said
| M.2 was no more than 5 years old...
| bombcar wrote:
| I still default to thinking "SATA" when I think drive
| connector; took me decades to forget what PATA looked like!
| klysm wrote:
| hackaday has tons wonderfully written content going back many
| years, their podcast is also good fun
| svnt wrote:
| I haven't listened to the podcast but have been reading
| hackaday for years. I like a lot of it but the level of
| polish in this piece just caught me for some reason.
| wrycoder wrote:
| Here's the first article in the series:
|
| https://hackaday.com/2022/10/27/m-2-for-hackers-expand-your-...
| matthewfcarlson wrote:
| There's also a part 3 https://hackaday.com/2022/11/07/m-2-for-
| hackers-cards/
| causality0 wrote:
| _However, of course, it can cause confusion of the "it fits, but
| doesn't work" kind. For instance, a B+M key SATA SSD will not
| work in some NVMe-only M-key sockets, and some proprietary
| standards like CNVi throw a wrench into the "any M.2 WiFi card
| will work with your laptop" concept._
|
| This is what I hate about M.2. If I plug something into a SATA
| port or USB port I know it's going to work. Why the hell would
| you bother making a keyed standard where matched-key products
| don't have to be compatible with one another?
| londons_explore wrote:
| I think the designers of M.2 weren't powerful enough to force
| use of a specific signalling standard. Some people wanted a
| connector for sata, others wanted PCIE, some wanted USB...
| Nobody wanted to design new protocols or have to use new chips.
| So we ended up with a standard where both sides can support
| one, two or three of those...
| Dylan16807 wrote:
| Sure, but that's what the keys are supposed to be for.
| londons_explore wrote:
| Not only might it not work... Some combinations that physically
| fit actually blow up the host...
| progman32 wrote:
| This is my issue with USB-C. Love the connector otherwise.
| lostlogin wrote:
| You haven't lived until you have bought a cable, had it work,
| then bought another with the same specs from the same vendor
| with the same packaging, and had it not work.
|
| IT support for a fleet of USB-C monitors is actually awful.
| theodric wrote:
| Until some bright spark had the idea to make Thunderbolt 3
| share a connector with USB-C. And then Apple (inter alia)
| released laptops that were either USB-C+Thunderbolt 3 -or-
| purely USB-C (12" MacBook), making life complicated for folks
| doing IT support in mixed environments.
|
| It Just Works, Unless It Doesn't(tm)
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(page generated 2022-11-08 23:00 UTC)