Techster's Blog

Things Change…

Here I go again, not posting for a long time. I dropped off the radar for a while for personal reasons, then came back briefly, then dropped off again. This time is was due to a career change. Ready for the big shocker?

I’m back at Intel! Yep, I’ve had friends congratulate me, and I’ve had friends joke that I’ve returned to the dark side.

Come To The Dark Side, We Have Cookies - Come To The Dark Side We Have Cookies - Sticker | TeePublic
Actually, I just really love cookies

Either way, I’m happy to be back, and loving the new role. Sadly it has nothing to do with NUCs, but given the state of the PC world lately that’s just fine with me. I haven’t had a new NUC to play with for quite a while, and I don’t expect that to change soon.

So I’ll have to adjust a little on the site. I still want to try out NUCs, but I’ll have to be crystal clear that I’m an Intel employee, and therefore have a real bias in that I want the NUCs to succeed even more.

That’s all for now. Gotta run. So much time and so little to do. Wait…strike that…reverse it.

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7 responses to “Things Change…”

  1. ItzWorm Avatar
    ItzWorm

    Wanted to say thank you for deciding to continue this blog. I was looking for any confirmation that a particular adapter for Maple Canyon NUCs would actually work with my 5i5MYHE. Thankfully your blog provided me with that.

    As a little background: I got the NUC from ebay to use as a pfSense box then it sat on the shelf for months. Originally was under the impression it had an M key m.2 slot, but once I discovered it was B key realized it would be non-trivial to add a non-usb NIC. After failing to notch 3 M key to PCIe adapters into B+M key adapters I finally started looking at the options and ordered the adapter from Amazon. Which subsequently led to me searching for any confirmation that it would actually work once it arrives.

    You mentioned you worked on this particular model and I was curious how the Maple Canyons ended up with B keys, while the Rock Canyons got M keys. Thanks again for giving me hope I’ve found a solution and in advanced for any light you can shed on this topic.

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    1. Techster Avatar
      Techster

      Thanks for the kind words! Sometimes it feels like I’m writing for myself, so it’s nice to know someone found something useful here. Maple Canyon and Rock Canyon were similar in most respects but had different targets. While Rock Canyon was aimed at the consumer market, Maple was intended for commercial use, so there were subtle differences like it having a replaceable WiFi card and Rock having it soldered down. I was only on the project for a relatively short time and those decisions were made before I was involved, but the explanation I got was simply that…they were trying to reach two different markets.

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      1. ItzWorm Avatar
        ItzWorm

        You’re absolutely welcome and they’re deserved. Younger me thought blogs were played out in the same way vlogs seemed to be from day one; so much noise and so little signal then as now. Older me sees the utility in such a platform and am considering starting one myself.

        And that’s is more or less the answer I figured you would have. It certainly makes good market sense for devices that are effectively from the same generation.

        I have a follow up question, though I suspect you may know less about this one. There’s a header on this NUC called the High Speed Custom Solutions Connector. Would you happen to know if anyone ever made an adapter board for that 0.4mm pitch to PCIe?

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      2. Techster Avatar
        Techster

        There are boards out there for it, but I haven’t personally used them. I seem to remember Akasa having one for SATA connection. I’ll see if i can get a link to it.

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      3. Techster Avatar
        Techster

        I think this is it: https://www.akasa.com.tw/search.php?seed=AK-PCCMSA-03

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      4. ItzWorm Avatar
        ItzWorm

        Thanks, I have seen that and planned to use it as reference if I made a custom job. Was hoping there was something with PCIe lanes lingering in a forgotten corner of the web.

        Again I appreciate you taking time to answer my questions.

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      5. Techster Avatar
        Techster

        Rats, that’s the only one I knew of. Sorry I couldn’t help more!

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