Innodisk Adds 10GbE To Useless M.2 Slots

Computex 2026: You either need them or you don’t

Jun 19, 2026 by

Innodisk LogoInnodisk has some rather nifty uses for M.2 slots that sit idle on most systems, a NIC. SemiAccurate has long been a fan of the way Innodisk thinks outside the box and Computex 2026 just added to that mindset.

The idea is simple enough, the rather idiotic M.2 standard was a bad idea implemented by committee that has all the hallmarks of what not to do in a standard. For anyone who has hear the ‘sproing’ of an SSD being bounced upward followed by the rattle of that tiny little screw hitting the floor after rocketing off somewhere to be swallowed by cracks in reality, you know what I mean. M.2 is a pretty miserable physical for factor. One thing it does do right is route PCIe lanes to the user, and that is a good thing.

Most systems, especially servers, have idle M.2 slots. You either need more than you have or one, very few people need the middle ground. So those PCIe lanes sit there, bored and idle. One thing most servers need is more I/O, but the slots tend to be filled with things like GPUs nowadays. So Innodisk came to the rescue with the NIC below.

Innodisk M.2 to 10GE adapter card

Innodisk M.2 to SFP+ adapter

If you take those M.2 slots and plug a NIC into them, you end up with a dual 10GbE card for ‘free’, at least as long as you have a free slot cutout on the back of your server. If you don’t, a quick trip to the tool bench and a large saw will fix that in short order. If chopping servers up with power tools isn’t your thing, there is a smaller brother to the slot based NIC which you can find space for in most racks.

Innodisk small M.2 to 10GbE adapter

Smaller but still fast

The big card uses an Intel X710-BM2 controller and supports both SFP+ optical and copper connections. Intel NICs are pretty much the standard for drivers so this setup should be pretty plug and play. Same for the smaller card, it uses an Intel E610-XAT2 chip so no optical connections but Innodisk claims it is very low power.

Both of these solutions are quite useful, they take a dead slot and add 10GbE ports which like M.2 slots, you either have extra or need far more, rarely is there middle ground. The only thing we wish Innodisk implemented in these parts is the physical self-destruct feature, that is just too cool to leave out.S|A

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate