PCIe 5.0 plug-in card for 28 M.2 SSDs: 109 GByte/s and up to 400 watts

AI and data centers not only need accelerators, but also fast storage systems. The Taiwanese company Utran Technology is now presenting such a system with the M.2 host cards HM-5281A and HM-5282A. With up to 28 conventional M.2 SSDs with 8 terabytes each, the system achieves a maximum storage capacity of 224 terabytes.

The host cards have the FLFH format (full length, full height), are supplied with power via an EPS12V connection and are designed to transfer up to 109 gigabytes per second. Utran plans to sell the cards from the summer and, according to reports from Taiwan, is targeting a price of 3000 US dollars.

Broadcom at heart

A PCI Express 5.0 switch from Broadcom forms the linchpin of the HM-528xA: The Atlas II PEX89144 provides 144 PCIe 5.0 lanes and typically consumes 49 watts. 112 of the 144 switch lanes are available for the M.2 connections.

The M.2 connectors are packed very tightly inside the card housing, with a small fan at the end of the casing blowing fresh air between them to prevent them from getting too hot. With up to 400 watts, which the construction is supposed to absorb, it should have plenty to do. At this point at the latest, technology experts are probably wondering how all this is supposed to work with PCIe 5.0 and a single eight-pin power connection.

Double connection

Unlike the ATX12V eight-pin connection, the EPS12V connection used uses an additional 12-volt line and can therefore supply 300 watts. The PCIe connector contributes a further 75 watts, leaving 25 watts. But even to achieve the 109 gigabytes per second, the single connector is not enough. Utran adds two additional MCIO connectors for x8 cables to the card and the switch, which are connected to the system with a separate MCIO x16 card. This is probably how the missing watts and the missing theoretical 64 gigabytes come about to fulfill the specifications.

At Computex, Utran demonstrated the transfer rates of the card to the website tomshardware using the benchmark IOMeter and also confirmed the price.

(csp)