The upcoming Samsung 990 PRO flagship consumer SSD has recently been listed as PCIe 5.0 compliant by PCI-SIG with the entry also confirming the drive's name and M.2 interface. The upgrade to PCIe 5.0 from 4.0 doubles the available bandwidth for the card with Samsung's existing enterprise PCIe 5.0 drives reaching speeds of 13,000 MB/s significantly above the 7000 MB/s of the best PCIe 4.0 drives. The latest Intel Alder Lake systems can support PCIe 5.0 drives on select motherboards with AMD support set to arrive with the launch of Ryzen 7000 and X670/B650 motherboards. Samsung is expected to release at least 1 TB and 2 TB variants of the drive however other details such as the exact length of the card and the controller used are currently unknown.

The LattePanda Team launched the world's thinnest pocket-sized hackable computer - LattePanda 3 Delta with global electronic components distributors. The collaboration will ensure that the product choice for LattePanda 3 Delta is passed on to customers through quick, easy online selection via the website of global electronic components distributors and LattePanda.

"LattePanda Team is so proud to cooperate with the global electronic components distributors for this joint launch. It delivers an exciting message to our customers that they can gain fast, easy access to our high-performance and hackable LattePanda 3 Delta anywhere in the world. Our collaboration will assure even higher levels of customer service," said Sandy Zhang, CMO of LattePanda Team.

ASRock is bringing as many as five motherboard models based on the AMD X670E chipset, for upcoming Ryzen 7000-series Socket AM5 processors. The lineup includes the twins X670E Taichi and X670E Taichi Carrara at the top; followed by the X670E Steel Legend, X670E Pro RS, and the X670E Phantom Gaming Lightning. The X670E Taichi/Carrara feature a mammoth 26-phase VRM, which going by the trends, could use 90 to 105 A power-stages. You get two PCi-Express 5.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 with both populated), at least two Gen 5 M.2 slots wired to the SoC, additional Gen 5 M.2 slots from the chipset, and a plethora of connectivity options.

What sets the two Taichi boards apart is the Carrara does away with the matte-black "gearwheel" design theme, and instead features a white marble appearance. It's not known if the marble pattern is a print, or if ASRock used actual stone. ASRock has been trying to upmarket its Steel Legend SKUs for the past couple of generations, and it appears like the X670E Steel Legend will be the third-based board from the series, with no PG Velocita SKU in sight. You get just the one PCI-Express 5.0 x16, at least two Gen 5 M.2 slots, a couple of Gen 4 M.2 slots, and fairly premium connectivity, including WLAN.

Earlier this week, some details, including the PCB layout of the MSI MEG X670E Godlike leaked, but now MSI has shared some additional details, including a picture of the board. In fact, MSI shared most of thespecs of the Godlike board during Computex, but the company didn't release a picture back then. However, now we know the power design, which consists of 24+2 phases and a 105 A power stage. MSI has also created its own screwless M.2 slots, as well as heatsinks, which simply clip in place after the SSD has been installed, although it doesn't appear the Godlike board has screwless heatsinks for more than one of M.2 drives.

Other features include 10 and 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, as well as AMD's RZ616 WiFi 6E module. MSI hasn't gone for USB4 from what we know and nothing was mentioned with regards to USB4 during the MSI presentation. MSI also seems to have skipped video outputs on this board, but it's possible that one of the USB-C ports will support display output, even though that wasn't the case back at Computex. As with many other X670E boards, the Godlike supports 60 W USB PD charging via the front USB-C port.

During AMD's Meet the Experts event, ASUS revealed more details about its ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme, a board the company revealed during Computex, but didn't show the rear I/O of. However, ASUS also unveiled the ROG Crosshair X670E Hero, a board the company hadn't shown off prior to the AMD event. Both boards will feature a pair of USB4 ports, with both ports supporting DisplayPort Alt Mode. Both boards feature a further two USB-C ports, plus seven plus USB-A ports. The Extreme features 10 Gbps and 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, whereas the Hero gets to make do with 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, although it gains an HDMI output. Both boards have a full set of audio jacks and WiFi 6E support, as well as a rear mounted clear CMOS and BIOS FlashBack button.

Taking a closer look at the Hero board, it has two PCIe x16 PCIe slots, plus a single, open-ended PCIe x1 slot. The board supports four M.2 NVMe slots for SSDs and comes with a PCIe 5.0 card for a fifth drive. It also has what appears to be six SATA ports, a front header for a 20 Gbps USB 3.2 2x2 USB-C port that also supports up to 60 W USB PD and Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+. The Hero board will be kitted out with an 18 phase power design, with the Extreme getting a 22 phase design, both with a 110 Ampere power stage. ASUS has moved its audio solution to the ALC4082 USB based audio codec and at least the Extreme will have an ESS ES9218 audio codec. ASUS is also bringing over the Q-Release solution for graphics cards to these boards, as well as the Q-Latch for M.2 SSDs.

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation ("Silicon Motion"), a global leader in NAND Flash controllers and solid-state storage devices, today announces it will be showcasing its unique suite of SSD controller solutions for Datacenter, Notebook PCs and Automotive / Industrial SSDs during the Flash Memory Summit from August 2-4 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, booth #311.

Solidigm has announced the Solidigm P41 Plus, the company's first branded solid-state storage drive (SSD) since becoming a company in December 2021. The P41 Plus is an innovative PCIe 4.0 product that delivers the industry's best combination of performance and value to PC users for everyday productivity and gaming. Capable of delivering up to 4,125 MB/s sequential read speed, the Solidigm P41 Plus represents a breakthrough in cost efficiency, delivering great PCIe 4.0 performance at a price that won't break the budget for everyday PC users. The Solidigm P41 Plus features 144-layer 3D NAND and is widely available in an M.2 2280 form factor in capacities of 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB. For increased design flexibility, the Solidigm P41 Plus is also available to OEMs in 2230 and 2242 sizes.

In a move that reinforces Solidigm's commitment to being a new paradigm in solid-state storage, the company has invested significantly in storage software to unlock the best possible user experience. The result is Solidigm Synergy software, an optional but highly recommended suite that includes both a storage driver and a Windows application with robust drive health monitoring tools. The Solidigm Storage Driver supports host-managed caching by monitoring usage patterns to identify high-priority data, keeping the most important items in the cache, and enabling faster reads as the drive fills up.

Samsung prepares regulatory filing for its next-generation 990 PRO flagship client-segment SSD. The M.2 NVMe drive will leverage PCI-Express Gen 5. It remains to be seen if the drive will be an "all-Samsung" solution (in-house controller + NAND flash + DRAM cache); or if it will use some of the first crop of third-party Gen 5 controllers; although the former seems more likely. At least two capacities are known so far—1 TB and 2 TB. Samsung will be gunning to compete with flagship Gen 5 M.2 SSDs powered by next-generation Phison and Silicon Motion controllers that will be combined with 3D NAND flash chips with over 144 layers. The drive succeeds the current 980 PRO, the company's flagship Gen 4 SSD.

In a couple of days, AMD will be co-hosting its Meet the Experts event with several Taiwanese motherboard makers, which are said to be showing off their upcoming X670/X670E motherboards during the event. However, courtesy of multiple sources, we already have a preview of MSI's upcoming MEG X670E Godlike motherboard. MSI itself has posted a teaser on bilibili in the PRC, which shows off the four M.2 slots the board will have, of which three supports the new-ish, slightly wider 25 mm M.2 form factor, compared to the more common 22 mm width for M.2 drives. Note that MSI writes that all four M.2 slots are PCIe 5.0, but it appears that only one of the slots is actually PCIe 5.0, with the other three being PCIe 4.0. Courtesy of Wccftech, we also have the PCB layout and Videocardz got their hands on most of the specs for the board.

The PCB layout was also annotated by @harukaze5719 to make it easier to see what some of the parts are. The board will apparently have a 24+2+1 power phase layout. It also has two additional power inputs via standard 6-pin PCIe type connectors, one for USB-PD and one that provides extra power for the PCIe slots. The board has a total of three PCIe 5.0 slots, with the first two slots sharing bandwidth and the third slot being a x4 slot that is also connected to the CPU. The board will also have eight SATA ports, two internal USB-C ports, as well as a rear one and a pair of modules around the back of which at least one should be WiFi. The board also has two Ethernet ports, one 10 Gbps and one 2.5 Gbps, at least five USB-A ports, nine fan/pump headers, a POST80 debug LED display and space for some overclocking friendly features. The 24-pin ATX power connector appears to be right-angled. Expect this to be a very premium product price wise, most likely well north of US$800.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), the global leading motherboard, Mini-PCs, Notebooks, mobile device, and smart city solutions provider, is proud to present the high performance, power efficiency, and multi-tasking mini PC - LIVA One H610. It's powerful, multi-functional, and adopts to support Intel 12th Gen Processors with LGA1700 Socket to fulfill daily computing purposes. It sports up to 64 GB DDR4 dual-channel memory technology and is expansion-friendly through the M.2 socket to meet all sorts of needs.

The LIVA one H610 supports up to three different outputs including HDMI, DisplayPort, and VGA, and reaches up to 4K high-quality resolution. It is a good fit for all-around scenarios like corporate offices, specific businesses, individual studios, homes, and so on due to its expandable and diversified possibilities. With TPM support, LIVA One H610 is ideal for small to mid-size businesses (SMBs),it helps keep PCs secure by offering hardware-level protection against malware and sophisticated cyberattacks.

For those with older systems, or for those just in need of additional M.2 slots in their system, SilverStone has launched the SST-ECM28 riser card. The SST-ECM28 is a low-profile solution that can house one M-key NVMe drive and one B-key SATA drive, as it allows a drive to be mounted on each side of the riser card. The SATA drive requires a SATA cable to be connected to the rear of the riser card and then to a SATA slot on the motherboard to function.

This isn't the first time we've seen a product that can handle two drives, but it's the first time we've seen one that is as compact as this. The downside is that there's no retention bracket and it appears that the only way to hold the SST-ECM28 is by fitting it into a physical x16 slot that has a locking mechanism for graphics cards, as the PCB has a retention hook, just as you get on most x16 cards. The SST-ECM28 uses a standard x4 PCIe interface, so it will fit in x4 slots as well, with the risk of it popping out of the slot if the system is moved around. Drives of all sizes from 2230 up to 2280 are supported for both SATA and NVMe drives.

The Mini-PC pioneer Shuttle is venturing to achieve the delicate balance between compactness and flexibility with the 4.7-litre design. It has produced a 9.5 cm flat Mini-PC Barebone for lots of Intel Core processors of the 10th & 11th generation which features two PCI Express slots. This means it can confidently compete directly with workstations from major manufacturers with a similar format.

As its base area is only 25 × 20 cm, smaller than a sheet of A4 paper, it fits almost anywhere. Even the overall height of 9.5 cm is regarded as flat and provides plenty of space, for example for Intel Core i9 processors, dual-slot graphics cards, 64 GB of RAM and three drives. "Probably the biggest advantage over other products in the market is the flexibility. Buyers can decide the details of which components they want to use and the choice of operating system," explains Tom Seiffert, Head of Marketing & PR at Shuttle Computer Handels GmbH. "From the entry-level version with scope for an upgrade, through to the maximum configuration level, with the XH510G2 you have almost free rein to decide on a surprisingly large number of features."

Slowly but surely, we're getting more and more details about upcoming AM5 motherboards and ASRock has put up a very spec light page for its upcoming X670E Pro RS motherboard. Not much has changed since the Computex reveal, but the product page did contain a couple of extra board shots as well as a look at the rear I/O. This time around the M.2 WiFi card slot is also populated, suggesting that there will be a WiFi version of this model shipping. The board has a single "Blazing" M.2 slot for a PCIe 5.0 SSD as well as what should be three PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, of which two come with a shared heatsink and one has no heatsink at all. The final M.2 slot is limited to PCIe 3.0. As this is an X670E board, the PCIe x16 slot is of course PCIe 5.0.

Other features include Realtek's Dragon branded 2.5 Gbps Ethernet controller that has some gaming specific software. It appears that ASRock has trimmed the audio jacks to a bare minimum, with only a line out, a mic in and an optical S/PDIF being connected to the Realtek ALC897 audio codec. The board also has a single USB-C port around the back, although it's at least a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port (20 Gbps). There are a total of five USB-A 3.2 ports, of which one is capable of 10 Gbps speeds, with the other delivering 5 Gbps. There are also four USB 2.0 ports, a DP and HDMI port, as well as a UEFI/BIOS update button around the back. Other expansion options include an internal USB-C header and two PCIe x1 slots of unknown type, as well as six SATA ports and two USB 3.x type headers. This should be one of the more affordable X670E motherboards when the AM5 platform launches later this year.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking, and storage solution innovator, today launched the TS-h1290FX NAS. Providing QNAP's first PCIe 4.0 and U.2 NVMe/SATA all-flash NAS in a tower form factor, the TS-h1290FX excels in the most demanding work environments such as collaborative high-resolution video workflows. Featuring AMD EPYC 8/16-core processors, built-in 25 GbE and 10GbE connectivity, PCIe Gen 4 expansion, and up to petabyte-scale storage capacity, the TS-h1290FX provides up to 816K/318K iSCSI 4K random read/write IOPS for tackling data-intensive and latency-sensitive applications, such as large media file transfer, real-time editing of 4K/8K media, and virtualization applications.

"Modern businesses and studios shouldn't need to dedicate entire rooms to accommodate hot and loud servers, and that's where the TS-h1290FX comes in. Contained within a unique tower form factor and utilizing quiet cooling is exceptional performance driven by a server-grade processor, all-flash U.2 NVMe SSD storage, and QNAP's enterprise-grade QuTS hero operating system," said Jason Hsu, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "the TS-h1290FX is a remarkable storage solution that provides exceptional power to deal with the modern demands of businesses and studios - including high-resolution media editing and online collaborative workflows."

AI at the edge comes with a host of challenges: limited processing resources, small storage capacities, insufficient memory, security concerns, electrical power requirements, limited physical space on edge devices, and excessive costs. That being said, there is an enormous need for AI at the edge - for devices to learn fast and make decisions in real time. Issues such as latency and distance are current drawbacks that hold edge-to-cloud AI back from reaching its full potential. In some cases, cloud data centers can be as far as hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away from edge devices. Reducing the distance and therefore the latency, by bringing AI into the edge device itself, can open up a world of new possibilities. And, compared to edge-to-cloud AI, AI-enabled edge devices don't need to rely on a stable internet connection, nor do they have as much vulnerability to cyber-security issues, because they don't send data offsite.

Edge AI box computers equipped with compact and high-capacity storage is one of the key factors to make AI come true at the edge. By offloading computation and storage from the cloud to the edge itself, edge computing is enhancing the power and capabilities of the IoT. To help make this a reality, SP Industrial has launched the new MEA3FEV0 SSD Series. This industrial-grade PCIe Gen 3x4 SSD series features support for NVMe 1.3 and BiCS5 112-layer 3D TLC NAND Flash technology. It ticks many boxes that are common problems for edge AI computing: large storage capacities up to 2 TB, small M.2 2242 form factor for minimal space usage, lower power consumption compared to BiCS4, and affordable cost with a DRAM-less design.

Sonnet Technologies today announced the Sonnet M.2 2x4 Low-profile PCIe Card, the latest offering in the company's popular family of high-performance storage adapter cards that enable the installation of multiple SSDs into a computer's or Thunderbolt expansion system's PCIe card slot. The low-profile, half-length PCIe 3.0 card features two M-keyed NVMe M.2 SSD slots that support the installation of M.2 form factor NVMe PCIe SSDs.

The Sonnet M.2 2x4 Low-profile PCIe Card enables users to mount two M.2 NVMe 2280 PCIe SSDs (sold separately) into almost any expansion card space with an available x8 or x16 PCIe card slot; using today's highest-capacity SSDs, up to 16 TB of storage capacity may be installed. RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD configurations are supported, providing users with flexibility in configuring the SSDs for best performance or data safety, or both.

Axiomtek - a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted in the research, development, and manufacturing of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency - is pleased to announce its AIE100-T2NX, an ultra-compact fanless edge AI system with the flexibility of PoE PSE support and HDMI input. The high-performance AIE100-T2NX is powered by the NVIDIA Jetson TX2 NX module which integrates the dual-core NVIDIA Denver 2 64-bit CPU, quad-core Arm Cortex -A57 MPCore processor complex, and NVIDIA Pascal architecture GPU with 256 CUDA cores. The AIE100-T2NX is an ideal solution for intelligent edge AI applications, such as smart manufacturing, smart agriculture, smart farming, smart city, and more.

"The AIE100-T2NX with solid fanless design operates under a wide range of temperatures from -30°C to +60°C and withstands vibration up to 3 Grms. In addition, it offers an optional waterproof IP42-rated cover kit for enhanced protection in semi-outdoor environments," said Annie Fu, a product manager of Product PM Division at Axiomtek. "To easily deploy an IP camera, the AIE100-T2NX has one 15 W GbE PoE port for both power and video transmission. This user-friendly AI-powered system offers support for the NVIDIA JetPack software for ease of development in AI computing and deep learning applications such as access control, animal behavior analysis, quality control and traffic management. Moreover, the AIE100-T2NX integrates Allxon Device Management Solutions (Allxon DMS) to provide a cost-effective and simplified device management solution with comprehensive remote management capabilities."

Drive docks can be extremely handy, especially the kind with support for two drives, as they generally allow you to duplicate your data quickly and easily. However, with a move towards M.2 drives, SATA based docks are slowly becoming less useful. Akasa has launched a solution to that problem with its new DuoDock MX, which accepts a pair of M.2 NVMe drives. The dock itself looks like a miniature drive dock with the addition of a cup-shaped lid that helps protect the drives from being touched during use. The front is host to a range of LEDs and a drive clone button, whereas around the back there's a power switch, a power connector and a USB Type-C port.

The only real downside is that Akasa has gone with a 10 Gbps PCIe to USB 3.2 bridge chip, which means that the data connection to a PC would be fairly slow by today's standards. Presumably the reason for this is to prevent the need of using some kind of heatsink on the M.2 drives, as most 20 Gbps NVMe to USB 3.2 solutions tend to require heatsinks. That said, Akasa has equipped the DuoDock MX with what the company calls an ultra-thin fan, although a picture on the company website suggests it's a small blower fan. Price-wise it's not what you'd call a bargain at £98 or around US$120, although that price includes British VAT.

VIPER, a trademarked brand of PATRIOT and a global leader in performance memory, solid-state drives, and flash storage solutions, is proud to announce the market launch of its VPR400, the world's first RGB M.2 PCIe Gen 4x4 SSD. A unique aluminium heatspreader has been included to keep the drive thermally stable while accenting the onboard RGB LEDs. This SSD is built using the latest Innogrit IG5220 Gen4 x4 controller along with the highest quality 3D NAND memory chips, allowing the drive to provide the 4K Aligned Random Read and Write speeds up to 600K and 500K IOPs and Sequential Read and Write speeds up to 4,600 MB/s and 4,400 MB/s (1 TB model). Now available in capacities of 1 TB and 512 GB.

"The VIPER VPR400 has been crafted to deliver blazing speeds and performance for intense gaming and video content creation. VIPER understands that keeping high-speed SSDs thermally stable is the key to maintaining the storage unit's performance and longevity." said Roger Shinmoto, Vice President of VIPER GAMING. Onboard RGB is fully synchronizable with other VIPER GAMING RGB peripherals using the smart VIPER RGB 3.0 software, allowing users to customize their lighting profiles or choose any pre-programmed RGB lighting patterns.

Phison Electronics Corp., a global leader in NAND flash controller and storage solutions, today unveiled two new PCIe Gen4x4 Enterprise Class SSDs: the EPR3750 in M.2 2280 form factor and the EPR3760 in M.2 22110 form factor. The EPR3750 and EPR3760 SSDs are backward compatible in PCIe Gen3 M.2 slots at even faster speeds while offering significant performance enhancements when matched with PCIe Gen4 chipsets. Also, the EPR3750 and EPR3760 SSDs provide a faster quality of service (QoS) command execution with Enterprise SSD firmware. Workstation and Server boot applications require consistent and predictable performance from storage. Phison's new SSDs are ideal to use as boot drives in workstations, servers, and in Network Attached Storage (NAS) and RAID environments.

With the release of the PICO-V2K4, AAEON has gone one step further in pushing the boundaries of innovation. By creating the smallest embedded single board computer to be powered by the AMD RYZEN V2000 embedded processor family, featuring up to 8 cores, AAEON has further reiterated why it is an industry leader in embedded solutions. The PICO-V2K4 also hosts high-performance AMD Radeon graphics and 7 nm processing technology, all on a 3.94" x 2.84" form factor, opening the door to a broader and more sophisticated range of application uses.

The PICO-V2K4 retains the characteristic versatility that AAEON's PICO-ITX board range is known for, but its unprecedented high-speed computing power, groundbreaking graphic capability and targeted I/O introduces a new level of refinement to the edge. Such elements will give users everything from unprecedented CPU performance to rugged deployment capabilities, all without sacrificing graphic sophistication. With exceptional CPU performance courtesy of the V2000 embedded processor family, the PICO-V2K4 has the power to facilitate automated industrial applications, while maintaining longevity and consistency throughout its lifecycle with a thermal design point range of 10~25 W. Tying this together is up to 64 GB NVMe onboard storage and an M.2 2280 M key port, which will enable expansion modules to suit different application types.

Biostar is seemingly trying to become more competitive in the consumer motherboard market and although the company has some catching up to do with the tier one motherboard brands, the company has put out some more interesting products in the past couple of years. Its VX670E Valkyrie motherboard seems to sit near the middle of the X670E models that have been announced so far, although it's a little bit hard to tell, as the company only provided partial specs. As this is an AMD X670E based board, the PCIe x16 slot is using PCIe 5.0, although it's multiplexed with the second x16 slot, which means if both slots are used, the bandwidth drops down to eight lanes per slot. The board layout doesn't suggest any PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots, but as this is mandatory on X670E board, we have to presume that the M.2 slot right below the x16 PCIe slot, is the PCIe 5.0 one. The board has a further three M.2 slots, as well as what appears to be an empty M.2 E-keyed slot for a WiFi/Bluetooth module.

Other features listed by Biostar includes 2.5 Gbps Ethernet via a Realtek chip, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, six SATA 3 ports, one rear and one front header for USB Type-C Gen 3.2 2x2 (20 Gbps) ports, as well as Realtek based audio and a pair of ARGB headers. The board also has a debug LED and a few buttons and switches for resetting the CMOS, and powering the board on. Interestingly, Biostar also provided figures for the memory clock speed, as the company listed support for up to four sticks of DDR5 memory at 5600 MHz plus. AMD has already demoed higher memory clocks of 6000 and even 6400 MHz during its keynote, as supported by the footnotes that went alongside it, suggesting that this might just be a placeholder. Intel officially only supports 4800 MHz DDR5 memory, but speeds in excess of 6000 MHz doesn't appear to be an issue with the right motherboard and CPU combination. We'll have to wait and see what the official figures will be from AMD.

NVMe SSDs based on the M.2 form factor come in several different lengths today, ranging from 30 to 110 mm, although the 30 mm drives are rare and the 110 mm drives have so far been reserved for the server space. However, they've all had one thing in common, the 22 mm width, as otherwise there might be issues in terms of fitting the drives, especially in notebooks. However, it appears that the PCI-SIG snuck in a wider, 25 mm option for M.2 SDDs at the end of 2020, but seemingly forgot to mention it to anyone. The only reason we even noticed, was because Gigabyte listed its upcoming X670 and X670E motherboards as having support for 25110 SSD's, where you'd expect to see support for 2280 or 22110 drives.

An extra 3 mm in width might not sound like much, but many M.2 drives seem to be somewhat space constrained, mainly with regards to the passive components and the power regulation. It also seems like this is in preparation for PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives, where the host controller is expected to run hotter, even though it might not be as bad as initially expected. Regardless, it seems like motherboard makers are now making space for this slightly wider M.2 form factor, as well as implementing suitable cooling solutions to match. Whether we'll see drives using this slightly wider form factor or not, is still up in the air and one reason why the SSD manufacturers might choose not to go wider, is because new drives might not fit in older motherboards and laptops, if the clearance is too small.

Although AMD didn't provide too many details during its Computex 2022 keynote speech about the upcoming AM5 platform, the company did announce that there will be at least three chipsets for the platform and showed pictures of some upcoming motherboards. ASUS has kindly filled in some more details about its upcoming ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme, which will be one of its higher-end models. Sadly the pictures posted are kind of tiny and the company didn't provide a shot of the rear I/O. That said, ASUS did point out some of its new features that we can expect to find on the ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme.

For starters, the board will have a pair of PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, although each slot is likely to only have eight lanes each, when both slots are in use, but ASUS doesn't mention any details here. The board has support for up to five M.2 NVMe SSDs, four of which support PCIe 5.0. Only two are onboard, with the other three being via ASUS' proprietary ROG PCIe 5.0 M.2 card and ROG GEN-Z.2 card. ASUS also promises USB4 support, as well as a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 header with Quick Charge 4+ as well as up to 60 W charging support, for cases with a front USB-C port. On top of the rear I/O is an AniMe Matrix LED display that can be user customised.

Phison Electronics Corp., a leading provider of NAND controller and flash storage solutions, announced today a strategic collaboration with AMD and Micron to build a cooperative PCIe Gen5 ecosystem of compatible products that elevate the gaming and creator experience. Phison's role includes delivering a class-leading PCie Gen5 SSD controller - PS5026-E26 - that features nearly a 2x performance increase over the previous generation flagship while adhering to the same power limitations of the M.2 form factor.

"We are pleased to announce our cooperative effort with Micron and AMD to advance the technological development of PCIe Gen5 storage offerings, as this validates Phison's commitment to upholding customer-centric values," said Leo Huang, Sr. Director, Product Marketing, Phison. "The E26 controller enables gamers to compete at the highest level and helps content creators to maximize the overall system performance to increase productivity." The need for high-speed storage has increased with the popularity of 5G Wireless availability worldwide. Global markets including desktop PC, notebooks, gaming consoles, cloud servers and even mobile devices will benefit from increased data transfer rates and the bandwidth available for multitask purposes. The ecosystem consisting of AMD's AM5 platform, Phison's PS5026-E26 controller, Micron's DDR5 DRAM and Replacement Gate 3D NAND allow for platform acceleration across the entire system to meet the requirements for today's always-connected lifestyle.