52Pi Launches Its U2500 HAT, Adding M.2 Storage and Two 2.5-gig-Ethernet Ports to Any Raspberry Pi 5

The single-port "Product W01" design has been revisited, doubling up on 2.5-gigabit-Ethernet connectivity while retaining an M.2 slot.

Gareth Halfacree
3 months agoHW101

Single-board computer accessory maker 52Pi has announced a new version of its "Product W01" add-on board for the Raspberry Pi 5 — doubling up to two 2.5-gigabit-Ethernet ports, alongside an M.2 M-key slot for Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage or other PCI Express devices: the U2500 HAT.

"This HAT board is an excellent addition to any Raspberry Pi setup," 52Pi claims of its latest hardware launch, "offering a convenient way to boost both storage and networking capabilities in a single, compact package. The Raspberry Pi HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) board […] is a versatile expansion module designed to enhance the capabilities of your Raspberry Pi 5."

The U2500, brought to our attention by Linux Gizmos, isn't 52Pi's first shot at putting 2.5-gigabit-Ethernet connectivity onto a Raspberry Pi 5: back in May the company showed off the "Product W01" U2500, which — like the new U2500 — featured an M.2 slot connected to the Raspberry Pi 5 over PCI Express (PCIe) plus a 2.5-gigabit-Ethernet port connected over USB 3.0.

Product W01, however, has disappeared from the company's site — and the new U2500 is in its place. The overall design is largely unchanged: there's still a single M.2 M-key slot supporting 2230- and 2242-footprint NVMe drives and other PCI Express devices, though it loses support for larger 2260- and 2280-footprint devices, and the Ethernet is still connected over USB 3.0. This time, though, there's not one Ethernet port but two — both supporting 2.5-gigabit-Ethernet connectivity, and both usable at the same time as the Raspberry Pi 5's on-board gigabit Ethernet port.

To prevent bottlenecks, the new U2500 design connects one Ethernet port per USB port — meaning that it takes up all of the Raspberry Pi 5's two USB 3.0 ports, leaving only the slower USB 2.0 ports available for other accessories. This also means, though, that the two Ethernet ports run independently without sharing bandwidth — maximizing performance.

A doubling of network ports has, however, come at a cost: the U2500 is up for sale on the 52Pi store now at $49.99, up from the $29.99 of the single-port Product W01.

Gareth Halfacree
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.
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