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M903 V1.0
M903 V1.0 Interface
M903 V1.0 with active cooler
M903 V1.0 with H501 active cooler
M903 V1.0 with H501 active cooler

Contents

Overview

The M903 shield is a NVME M2 SSD PIP (PCIe Peripheral Board) for the Raspberry Pi 5 that uses the new PCIE interface of the Raspberry Pi 5to utilise the NVME M2 SSDs for fast data transfers and ultra-fast booting.

This shield follows the new "PIP" design guideline from Raspberry Pi fundation ensuring that it will be easy to use and be supported long term by updates to Raspberry Pi OS - though it is very early days and things are improving rapidly there!

Geekworm PCIe to NVME Sets:

After the release of the Raspberry Pi AI Kit, we tested four PIPs: X1001, X1004, X1011, and M901. X1001, X1004, and M901 all support the hailo-8 ai ​​accelerator, but X1011 does not.

It should be noted that X1004 uses ASMedia ASM1182e PCIe switch, and X1011 uses ASM1184e, they can't support PCIe Gen 3 speed, so even though we forced to enable PCIe Gen 3.0 setting in Raspberry Pi 5, it is limited by ASMedia ASM1182e PCIe switch, and speed is still PCIe Gen 2.0 5Gbps speed. when you use an hailo-8 ai accelerator, Raspberry Pi Fundation highly recommends using PCIe 3.0 to achieve best performance with your AI Kit.

Our tentative conclusions are as follows:

  • If you need to use hailo-8 ai accelerator with high performance, it is recommended to use X1015/X1002/X1003/M901/ the official M.2 HAT+ etc. When choosing these PIP boards, you should focus on whether there is a conflict between the camera cable and the PIP board installation, and enable PCIe3.0 to use hailo-8 ai accelerator. At the same time, you need to prepare an SD card as the system disk.
  • If you don't care about the high performance brought by PCIe 3.0, then you can consider using X1004, so that you can use any socket of X1004 to install NVME SSD as the system disk, and another socket to install hailo-8 ai accelerator, so as to have both.
Model Compatible with Position NVMe M2 SSD Length Support Matching Case Matching Cooler Support NVMe Boot Support PCIe 3.0 Support Hailo-8 AI Accelerator
X1000 Raspberry Pi 5 Top 2230/2242 P579 Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes - Not tested
X1001 Raspberry Pi 5 Top 2230/2242/2260/2280 P579 Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes - Yes
X1002 Raspberry Pi 5 Bottom 2230/2242/2260/2280 P580 /
P580-V2
Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes - NO
X1003 Raspberry Pi 5 Top 2230/2242 P579 / P425 Official Cooler / H501 Only Yes - Not tested
X1004 Raspberry Pi 5 Top Dual ssd: 2280 P579-V2 Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes (Requires EEPROM 2024/05/17 and later version) NO Yes
X1015 Raspberry Pi 5 Top 2230/2242/2260/2280 P579 Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes - Yes
X1005 Raspberry Pi 5 Bottom Dual ssd: 2230/2242/2260/2280 P580-V2 Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes (Requires EEPROM 2024/05/17 and later version) NO Yes
X1011 Raspberry Pi 5 Bottom 4 ssds: 2230/2242/2260/2280 X1011-C1 Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes (eeprom 2024/05/17 and later version) NO NO
X1012 Raspberry Pi 5 Top 2230/2242/2260/2280 P579 Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes - Not tested
M901 Raspberry Pi 5 Top 2230/2242/2260/2280 P579 Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes - Yes
Q100 Raspberry Pi 5 Top 2242 P579 Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes - Not tested
Q200 Raspberry Pi 5 Top Dual ssd: 2280 P579 Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 NO - Not tested
M300 Raspberry Pi 5 Top 2230/2242 P579 Official Cooler / Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes - Not tested
M400 Raspberry Pi 5 Top 2230/2242/2280 P579 Official Cooler/ Argon THRML Cooler / H505/H501 Yes - Not tested

Features

  • Minimalist design, easy to install
  • Supports installation of official active coolers;
  • SSD ACT LED Indicators-On: Power OK/Standby, Flashing: Reading/Writing
  • Supports 2230/2242 NVME M2 SSD
  • Can power the M903 shield directly from the FFC PCIe ribbon (providing maximum 5W of continuous power)

Packing List

  • 1 x M903 Shield
  • 1 x FFC cable 22mm
  • 1 x M2*13 mm screw
  • 1 x M2*3 mm screw

 

User Manual

Hardware Installation

Software Installation

FAQ

Q1: Question 1

A: Place the answer here.

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