Many people were eagerly anticipating the release of the Raspberry Pi 5, especially after noticing the PCIe FPC connector and the mention of an upcoming ‘NVMe SSD HAT’. While the official Raspberry Pi NVMe HAT is not yet available, Polish company Pineberry Pi is preparing to launch its cleverly named HatDrive in both Top and Bottom versions.
They sent a prototype to [Jeff Geerling], who has been testing it before creating a video showcasing the HatDrive Top, which supports 2230 and 2242 size NVMe drives.
The main purpose of integrating an NVMe drive into the RPi is to eliminate the slow and delicate SD cards. Even though UHS-III has speeds similar to NVMe, the Raspberry Pi 5’s maximum speed is limited to around 100 MB/s with UHS-I. Still, setting up an NVMe drive for booting requires effort, as explained thoroughly by Jeff in an article. The majority of the process consists of adjusting the /boot/config.txt file to activate external PCIe support, modifying the onboard EEPROM to alter the boot sequence (instead of using a BIOS screen similar to a PC), and installing the OS image onto the NVMe drive you plan to use for booting.
While [Jeff] found that most aspects of the testing went smoothly, there are still some restrictions to consider, including the fact that the RPi 5 is designed to support only PCIe Gen 2 x1 officially, with Gen 3 being a potential option but posing potential risks to data integrity. There is also the basic restriction of having just one PCIe lane available. If there are no concerns, Pineberry Pi provides the HatDrive Top for HAT-style mounting and a Bottom version that supports up to 2280 format NVMe SSDs. You can purchase the Top for €20 and the Bottom for €25.99, including the ribbon cables. The first batch is expected to be shipped in early December.
Source: PINEBERRY PI HATDRIVE: USING NVME SSDS WITH THE RASPBERRY PI 5
