Accessories
Blade 3 Case
The Blade 3 Case is designed specifically for the needs and functionality of the Mixtile Blade 3.
It has a button to power on/off the Blade 3 and the status is indicated by power LED. The case is designed with good heat dissipation and has built-in heatsink and cooling fan, the speed of fan would be adjusted automatically according to CPU temperature. The built-in adapter board transfers the U.2 port of Blade 3 board to M.2 Key-M connector for installing M.2 NVMe SSD, and supports PCIe Gen3 x4 for high speed.
Moreover, it reserves plastic area for ensuring the performance when installing antenna on the case.
Figure 1. Mixtile Blade 3 case
Technical specifications
- Dimension (H x W x D): 27.4 mm x 112.4 mm x 89 mm
- Weight: 268 g
- Material: Aluminum Alloy
- Color: Black
- Package included: One Aluminum Case with Screws, one U.2 to M.2 NVMe Adapter Board
- Supported SSD: compatible with any M.2 NVMe SSD with Key-M
Product diagrams
Figure 2. Exploded view of Blade 3 case
Blade 3 Breakout Board
The Breakout Board plugs into the U.2 edge connector of Blade 3 and brings its signals out to three connectors:
- A 12 V DCIN connector, to power the board without USB PD. See Power Supply.
- A pair of SFF-8643 PCIe connectors, Port A and Port B, for linking boards into a cluster
- A SATA socket
Figure 3. Blade 3 Breakout Board
With 12 V coming in through the Breakout Board, both USB-C ports are free for other uses, such as DisplayPort output to a monitor.
Clustering
Blade 3 boards cluster in a daisy chain: an SFF-8643 cable runs from one board's Port A to the next board's Port B. A cluster of N boards needs N Breakout Boards and N − 1 cables.
Figure 4. Blade 3 boards connected in a daisy chain through Breakout Boards (rendering)
The pin assignments for making your own cable are in U.2.
Technical specifications
| Item | Breakout Board | SFF-8643 cable |
|---|---|---|
| Part number | BB-BLADE3 | SFFC-BLADE3 |
| Dimensions (W x H x D) | 104 mm x 21 mm x 24 mm | 15 cm long |
| Weight | 20 g | 20 g |
| Packaging | Anti-static bag | Anti-static bag |