Is this the next Minidisc? Exciting Mini SSD format could suffer fate of Sony's data format if it doesn't get further backing

• Biwin’s Mini SSD brings tiny NVMe storage into consumer devices
• Format’s future hinges on whether Biwin opens the standard to others
• Tray loaded design offers fast removable storage but adoption remains uncertain

Biwin’s Mini SSD format has taken another step into the consumer market with the tiny CL100 NVMe card now available to buy.

The product is a faster alternative to microSD with a footprint far smaller than even an M.2 2230 drive.

The CL100 measures just 15 x 17 x 1.4 mm, weighs about 1g and uses a SIM tray style slot rather than a traditional connector. It supports PCIe 4.0 x2 and NVMe 1.4 with stated speeds of up to 3700MB/s reads and 3400MB/s writes. Random performance reaches as high as 650K IOPS. The card is waterproof, dustproof and drop resistant to 3m.

RD510 USB enclosure

Capacity options are 512GB for ¥599 ($85), 1TB for ¥1,099 ($155) and 2TB for ¥2,199 ($311). Retailers in China are reportedly already selling the two smaller versions.

Biwin is also offering the RD510 (pictured above), a USB4 40Gbps enclosure with a small fan that turns the Mini SSD into a portable external drive. It’s intended to help push the format beyond handhelds and into laptops, tablets, and cameras which could benefit from fast removable storage.

The new drive follows early use in gaming handhelds such as the GPD Win 5 and OneXPlayer Super X. These devices introduced the idea of a tray loaded NVMe module that could be swapped with a pin.

Once removed, the card works much like an internal SSD pulled from a laptop - just far smaller.

The Mini SSD format still faces a rather hard to ignore hurdle. We noted in September that new storage standards only gain traction when backed by more than one manufacturer.

MicroSD succeeded because SanDisk submitted it to the SDA, allowing others to adopt it. Biwin hasn’t confirmed any plans to follow that route.

Without support from groups like the SDA or PCI SIG, the Mini SSD could remain too niche for wider uptake.

The format’s speed, toughness and tiny size give it clear appeal, but unless other firms endorse the standard, it risks repeating the pattern of past proprietary formats that never reached their true potential, which would be a huge shame.

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