Radxa Hexa SATA card

[dominik]

I just noticed this particular product: https://radxa.com/products/accessories/m2-to-hexa-sata-adapter/

It’s Radxa ASM1166 m.2 card. So far not much than card, some photos, no docs and availability, just brief specs.
I guess it’s like always for other asm1166 m.2 cards: 2x pcie 3.0 to 6x sata card.

I’m really curious about this card and it’s features, would like to clarify several things,
I have few those generic, noname cards (v1.1, v1.2 or some unversioned):

Like radxa version its based on ASM1166, only small changes between those.

Are there any benefits for Radxa version of this card? Almost same functionality, but Radxa version:

1. don’t have UART pins as well as i2c? Is this somehow wired into m.2?
   Frankly I don’t know what we can do with those, usually card should sit in m.2 slot and just provide sata interface for system,
   UART console in generic cards reports some firmware version and “NoGrant”, I guess it’s used for firmware update. I wish I could use it to get some information (connected/disconnected drives, activity, leds?). Maybe i/2c is compatible with SGPIO? I could not find or confirm anything related to those on my cards, and here no such pins?

2. No heatsink?
   This chip heats up significantly. v1.0 has no heatsink and those dies in few weeks. Why radxa version skipped this? Any newer design or chip upgrade?

3. ASM1166 firmware,
   those generic cards usually have old firmware with no ASPM or hotplug support, some users upgrade firmware using the one from silverstone base ASM1166 pcie card
   Will radxa have any firmware customisations to this card? Will it support those two features out of box?

4. Any other benefits for this type of card from radxa? Price? Support?

5. On photos we can see two of those in Rock 5 ITX+, clearly it should work with Rock 5B+ and 5B with bifurcation adapter. Are there any changes for that in radxa version?

6. Can we expect any linux software for ASM1166? I could not find any tool to upgrade firmware under linux, anything for ARM etc. If board will be supported for Rock 5 ITX maybe there are some tools for this platform?

Anybody from @radxa have more info on those? maybe @setq or @jack ?

[setq]

Hi @melo,

Can you respond to these questions?

[dominik]

@melo can You help?

[melo]

Sorry for keeping you waiting.

1. The UART and I2C signals have not been brought out in the current version.

2. We will ship the product together with a heatsink.

3. The current version supports the hot-plugging and ASPM functions.

4. the price will bring you great surprises. Stay tuned!

5. when the M.2 to Hexa SATA Adapter is used in conjunction with one of the M.2 M Key connectors of the ROCK 5B / 5B+, there is a problem of structural interference.

6. We will provide the flashing tool.
   https://dl.radxa.com/accessories/m2-to-hexa-sata-adapter/tools/

[dominik]

Sorry for keeping you waiting.

No problem, card is still not available, so no worries, but I can compare those with generic ASM1166 cards

The UART and I2C signals have not been brought out in the current version.

What is purpose of those two? I could not find anything about those regarding ASM1166, i2c reports something at 900k baud rate, but not much else than some firmware hash, is it used for firmware upgrade?
Is there any chance to use i2c or uart for leds?

We will ship the product together with a heatsink.

Will this be glued to chip?
I have card that has place for nvme drive, but not such thick card like any generic asm1166. It would be gret for me to design own cooling for that,

The current version supports the hot-plugging and ASPM functions.

Great!
Any customisations for radxa version?

the price will bring you great surprises. Stay tuned!

Great

when the M.2 to Hexa SATA Adapter is used in conjunction with one of the M.2 M Key connectors of the ROCK 5B / 5B+, there is a problem of structural interference.

Oh, I need it for 5B, will it not work? What is the problem?

We will provide the flashing tool.
https://dl.radxa.com/accessories/m2-to-hexa-sata-adapter/tools/

At this moment it return cloudflare error, I’ll check that for sure

[melo]

Will this be glued to chip?
I have card that has place for nvme drive, but not such thick card like any generic asm1166. It would be gret for me to design own cooling for that,

Will not stick to IC.

[melo]

Great!
Any customisations for radxa version?

Generic version.

[melo]

Oh, I need it for 5B, will it not work? What is the problem?

This is due to the interference of components near the M.2 M Key Connector of 5B and 5B+.

[dominik]

Will not stick to IC.

Ok, I see updated radxa docs, one photo with heatsink:

This is due to the interference of components near the M.2 M Key Connector of 5B and 5B+.

Generic version of ASM1166 card seems to works on 5B, is there anything I need to check additionally?
If card is connected what problem should occur? should it be detected? link down? not stable connection?

We will provide the flashing tool.
https://dl.radxa.com/accessories/m2-to-hexa-sata-adapter/tools/

Right now it’s working. Linux flash tool + docs and ROM, is there x86 linux version too for some SBCs like radxa x4?