French company Polysoft has recently made headlines by successfully reverse-engineering Apple's proprietary SSD storage module for the Mac Studio, allowing users to upgrade their storage for significantly less expense.

Polysoft has announced plans to begin selling its Studio Drive storage products in January 2025, with available capacities of 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB, priced at €399, €799, and €1,099, respectively. This pricing is approximately half the cost of Apple's official storage options.

Due to Apple's encryption measures, the SSDs in Mac Studio have been non-replaceable since launch. Users were only able to replace the NAND flash, which meant many had to rely on external drives via USB-C or Thunderbolt interfaces.

With Polysoft's innovation, users now have more choices, particularly those who find the base model Mac Studio's SSD lacking in capacity or speed.

Polysoft achieved this by meticulously creating circuit diagrams, using laser etching to deconstruct Apple's original modules layer by layer and scanning the circuitry. They have built these storage modules utilizing the same Kioxia and SK Hynix TLC NAND flash as Apple.

Testing confirms that these modules can successfully initialize the system on Mac Studio. Additionally, Polysoft has introduced "RIROP" over-voltage protection in their products to safeguard against data loss from voltage failures.

Furthermore, Polysoft is working on upgrading the SSD for the M4 Mac mini.