(2016) https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-mass-producing-indus...

The size is nothing new, but the packaging into some sort of slottable physical interface with good signal integrity is somewhat new.

Very pleased with pci Express becoming a pseudo universal electrical interface as the only fast interface supported by many generations of intel CPU.

That makes something like this likely adaptable to thunderbolt with a dumb passive adapter.

Official press release: https://www.biwintechnology.com/press-release/biwin-mini-ssd...

Those are similar but different. These are meant for more permanent installation, not to be removed and replaced often or hotswapped, and IO speeds should be significantly higher. This is more of an attempt to replace M.2 with a smaller-footprint slot, not add a new type of hotswappable storage.