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source/_posts/Crucial-Discontinues-MX500-M-2-and-2-5-inch-SATA-drives.md

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+---
+title: Crucial Discontinues MX500 M.2 and 2.5 inch SATA drives
+date: 2024-12-19 01:39:35
+tags:
+    - crucial
+    - mx500
+    - sata
+    - eol
+    - discontinued
+    - ssd
+---
+
+### Quick Report
+
+Crucial has announced that it will be discontinuing the MX500 M.2 and 2.5 inch SATA drives after 7 years of market presence. It was the popular choice for users looking for well-rounded performance and value compared to Samsung EVO or PRO SATA SSDs.
+<!-- more -->
+
+Crucial recommends users to upgrade to QLC NVMe in M.2 format in terms of cost and storage capacity such as P3 Plus which comes in size of 4TB. Crucial MX500 is still available in select retailers until stocks run dry. Crucial still sells QLC SSD BX500 without DRAM that is a SATA III SSD using Micron 176 layer flash/NAND with SM2259XT v2 controller. Personally got a BX500 1TB version to replace my 8 year old Hitachi HDD 2.5" 1TB HDD and compared to old revision of BX500 with 64 layer NAND, the new version runs much cooler and much more performant for day-day usage.
+
+### Source(s)
+
+- [TPU][def]
+- [Tom\'s Hardware][def2]
+- [BX500 Specs][def3]
+
+[def]: https://www.techpowerup.com/329951/crucial-discontinues-the-mx500-sata-ssd-line
+[def2]: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ssds/crucial-discontinues-the-popular-mx500-ssd-to-make-way-for-next-gen-drives-sata-iii-ssd-retires-after-seven-years
+[def3]: https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/crucial-bx500-1-tb.d960

source/_posts/UEFI-Forum-Releases-UEFI-2-11-and-PI-1-9-Specifications.md

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+---
+title: UEFI Forum Releases UEFI 2.11 and PI 1.9 Specifications
+date: 2024-12-19 02:16:13
+tags:
+    - uefi
+    - efi
+    - PI
+    - platform initialization
+    - arm
+    - LoongArch
+    - x86
+    - amd64
+    - BIOS
+    - firmware
+---
+
+### Quick Report
+
+UEFI forum announced the release of UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) 2.11 and PI (Platform Initialization) 1.9 specifications that brings improved cryptographic algorithm support, multiple hardware architecture such as LoonArch, AMD64, RISCV and ARM64, security updates and finally improved alignment implementation guidance.
+<!-- more -->
+
+Key Highlights of UEFI 2.11:
+
+- Updates to memory management and allocation, such as the new memory attribute for hit plug and Arm memory allocation mandates
+- Enhancements to protocols, algorithms and boot management
+- Corrections to EFI_KMS_PROTOCOL, new crypto algorithms and support for Proxy Host URI in HTTP Boot
+- Improvements to error handling and documentation updates, including Common Platform Error Record (CPER) definitions and Arm processor error information
+
+Key Highlights of PI 1.9:
+
+- Expands algorithm options by providing enhanced security with additional cryptographic algorithms for signed Firmware Volume (FV) and signed sections extending beyond the previous RSA2048_SHA256
+- Adds Random Number Generator (RNG) PEIM-to-PEIM Interface (PPI) to serve as an entropy source for seeding other cryptographic services, allowing platforms to provide RNG services in PEI across binary boundaries effectively
+- Includes new protocol for Multiple SPI Regions with varying block erase sizes, enhancing flexibility and functionality
+- Adds support for LoongArch architecture, broadening the range of supported systems
+
+For more info and detailed changes you can refer the announcement [here][def].
+
+### Source(s)
+
+- [TPU][def2]
+- [UEFI Specs][def]
+
+[def]: https://uefi.org/specifications
+[def2]: https://www.techpowerup.com/329969/uefi-forum-releases-the-uefi-2-11-and-the-pi-1-9-specifications