Possible to mod Intel NUC bios to birfurcate M.2 slot to two x2 for Optane H10?

Discussion in 'BIOS Mods' started by e5j, Dec 5, 2023.

  1. e5j

    e5j MDL Novice

    Oct 29, 2013
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    Greetings,

    I'm trying to do data recovery for a friend with an unusual SSD. Intel's Optane H10 SSD is a M.2 SSD with Optane and QLC flash on it. Intel in their infinite stupidity designed the drive so that the PCIe x4 M.2 interface is bifurcated into two PCIe x2 channels on the x4 M.2 interface.

    This requires a motherboard to birfurcate its M.2 slot into two x2 (two lane wide) PCIe channels.

    This isn't supported by customer accessible BIOS settings in the NUC and other BIOSes like server boards. Some will bifurcate a x8 into two x4 but no setting to bifurcate an x4 into two x2s.

    Are there any tools for Intel Visual Bios on the NUC8i7HNK that could be used to create a x2x2 birfurcation mode for a M.2 slot?

    Many thanks!