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Difficulty: MediumStorage Devices and Interfaces

A technician is installing storage drives into a workstation motherboard. According to the system documentation, Slot 1 is an M.2 Socket 3 slot with an M-key physical interface connected to four PCI Express lanes. Slot 2 is an M.2 Socket 2 slot with a B-key physical interface routed to two PCI Express lanes and the SATA controller. Which TWO of the following statements correctly describe hardware compatibility for these M.2 slots?

  1. Slot 1 supports high-performance NVMe solid-state drives operating over four PCIe lanes.Answer
  2. Slot 2 supports M.2 SATA solid-state drives as well as two-lane PCIe storage drives.Answer
  3. C
    Slot 2 allows four-lane NVMe drives to operate at maximum theoretical PCIe throughput.
  4. D
    Slot 1 is restricted exclusively to SATA-based storage drives and cannot support the NVMe protocol.

Answer

Slot 1 supports high-performance NVMe solid-state drives operating over four PCIe lanes, and Slot 2 supports M.2 SATA solid-state drives as well as two-lane PCIe storage drives.
M.2 physical slots are keyed to prevent incompatible drive installations and specify available bus routing. An M-key slot (Socket 3) supports four PCI Express lanes (x4x4), making it optimal for high-speed NVMe solid-state drives. A B-key slot (Socket 2) is designed for SATA drives or legacy two-lane PCI Express (x2x2) drives. Therefore, the statements describing four-lane NVMe support on Slot 1 and SATA/two-lane PCIe support on Slot 2 are both correct.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze Slot 1 specifications (Socket 3, M-key, 4 PCIe lanes).
Confirm that M-key slots utilize 4 PCIe lanes (PCIe x4), which provides the necessary bandwidth for high-speed NVMe SSDs.
M.2 M-keying is standardized to deliver four PCI Express lanes to support NVMe protocols.
2
Analyze Slot 2 specifications (Socket 2, B-key, 2 PCIe lanes / SATA).
Confirm that B-key slots accommodate SATA signals and up to 2 PCIe lanes (PCIe x2).
M.2 B-keying physically limits the pinout to two PCIe lanes while maintaining support for legacy SATA interface signals.
3
Evaluate the incorrect options regarding bandwidth limits and protocol availability.
Identify that B-key slots cannot deliver PCIe x4 throughput and M-key slots are not restricted to SATA.
Confusing M.2 form factors with bus speeds leads to incorrect assumptions about slot capabilities.

Key Concept

M.2 Form Factor Keying and Interface Protocols (B-Key vs M-Key)
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Topics

Storage Devices and Interfaces

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