People have been connecting things other than SSD into M2 ports using all kinds of adapters and what not, so it is not surprising that they have decided to make this.
Maybe we could just decide to adapt the form factor and make other kinds of low channel PCie devices for small form factor and laptop upgrading.
This would be awesome. We could extend the M.2 card so that the screw is in the middle and then put some I/O ports on the end, though this would require all cards to be the same length.
This will take the iGPU system from 2 displays to 5, which will help cut costs in situations where one SFF system is controlling a lot of other controller boards and those need human monitoring. Until our AI cyber overlords take those jobs away.
1) APUs have limited display connectors - this could come handy if you need more - especially digital - connections; and
2) current Ryzen APUs have limited PCIe lanes to begin with, partially defeating the purpose of saving PCIe lanes; Instead of the 16/4/4 PCIe lanes for expansion cards/M.2/chipset on regular Ryzen, you only get 8/4/4 on APUs. (At least this is the case for Ryzens up to 2000 series - for 3000 AMD may have more leeway if they use a multi-chip package, allowing them to offer the full 24 lanes for APUs, too.) This means using this kind of M.2 graphics on a full Ryzen would still leave you with 16 lanes of PCIe available, whereas Ryzen APU comes with 12.
Better yet, putting this on a chipset-connected M.2 (since performance is secondary in this use case) would leave 20 lanes available on Ryzen.
Also, if you have no need for ECC and could use higher per-core performance, you could probably use this on a mainstream Intel motherboard for additional display outputs without sacrificing any of the 16 CPU PCIe lanes.
Seeing as it seems this uses PCIe 2 x1 or x2 only, it could even do with an M.2 adapter in a chipset x1 slot, as long as it physically fit a x4 connector. Not sure about power delivery in that case, though - a x4 device is allowed to draw more power than x1.
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valinor89 - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
People have been connecting things other than SSD into M2 ports using all kinds of adapters and what not, so it is not surprising that they have decided to make this.Maybe we could just decide to adapt the form factor and make other kinds of low channel PCie devices for small form factor and laptop upgrading.
donut4490 - Thursday, December 6, 2018 - link
This would be awesome. We could extend the M.2 card so that the screw is in the middle and then put some I/O ports on the end, though this would require all cards to be the same length.edzieba - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
I wonder what the subset of SFF systems are that do possess an m.2 slot with PCIe, but do not also host a CPU with an iGPU?thekaidis - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
Workstation boards w/o BMC using Xeon processors?Flunk - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
I would guess 0 or close to it. Ones than can't output 4K or need more than one video output however is a market that probably exists.linuxgeex - Thursday, December 6, 2018 - link
This will take the iGPU system from 2 displays to 5, which will help cut costs in situations where one SFF system is controlling a lot of other controller boards and those need human monitoring. Until our AI cyber overlords take those jobs away.Mikewind Dale - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
"with 256 MB of embedded memory"It would be funny to fire up an old version of 3DMark and see how this compares to something like the Radeon 9700 Pro.
ozzuneoj86 - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
It doesn't mention any kind of 3D API support, otherwise they probably would have given it more memory.euler007 - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
Or current integrated graphics.nerd1 - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
It will be great if they can make tiny GPU that can run CUDA in m.2 format.CaedenV - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
Something like this as a Phys-X adapter would have been really cool before it started being integrated on the GPU and emulated on CPUs so well.The Benjamins - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
This would be good for turning a Ryzen system into a server, with out the need for a big dGPUDragonstongue - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
that is why they currently make Ryzen APU (comes with built in Vega igp) ^.^Hul8 - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
Except1) APUs have limited display connectors - this could come handy if you need more - especially digital - connections; and
2) current Ryzen APUs have limited PCIe lanes to begin with, partially defeating the purpose of saving PCIe lanes; Instead of the 16/4/4 PCIe lanes for expansion cards/M.2/chipset on regular Ryzen, you only get 8/4/4 on APUs. (At least this is the case for Ryzens up to 2000 series - for 3000 AMD may have more leeway if they use a multi-chip package, allowing them to offer the full 24 lanes for APUs, too.) This means using this kind of M.2 graphics on a full Ryzen would still leave you with 16 lanes of PCIe available, whereas Ryzen APU comes with 12.
Better yet, putting this on a chipset-connected M.2 (since performance is secondary in this use case) would leave 20 lanes available on Ryzen.
Hul8 - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
Also, if you have no need for ECC and could use higher per-core performance, you could probably use this on a mainstream Intel motherboard for additional display outputs without sacrificing any of the 16 CPU PCIe lanes.Hul8 - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
Seeing as it seems this uses PCIe 2 x1 or x2 only, it could even do with an M.2 adapter in a chipset x1 slot, as long as it physically fit a x4 connector. Not sure about power delivery in that case, though - a x4 device is allowed to draw more power than x1.cosmotic - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
Ah yes, RealVideo support. That will be useful.Why DVI-D if it already has HDMI? Seems totally redundant.
GreenReaper - Thursday, December 6, 2018 - link
Maybe it supports dual-link DVI-D. HDMI only offers single-link, limiting resolution/depth/refresh rate.abufrejoval - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
What a great idea!I'd want to see variants with an AST2500 and an Nvidia GTX 1050ti!
abufrejoval - Thursday, December 6, 2018 - link
ok, scratch the 1050 for power and cooling but the AST2500 would be cool.hojnikb - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link
This would have been great if it supported HEVC and VP9 decodingJustcurioz - Friday, December 7, 2018 - link
But can it run Crysispiasabird - Tuesday, December 11, 2018 - link
Cant integrate graphics on newer motherboards do the same thing? Show us a benchmark? Can it play games?