Obviously the eMMC version of an SSD hard drive is not new technology. The eMMC format storage is used in phone and Android boxes and has been for a long time. The ability to remove and replace the eMMC module is a breakthrough in technology pioneered by Odroid. I have no doubt other SBC makes will be following this design soon and I believe the ROCK64 SBC is now using a similar removable eMMC module. The benefits of being able to remove the eMMC from the board and connect to your PC via a USB or SD adapter are enormous. This feature give the user the ability to either write new OS images to the card or make a backup copy of the image you are currently using. Both of these things are very important. I personally set up any and all flashed operating systems in the form of a full module size backup image. This gives me the ability to reflash the module with something else and return it to it's original OS at any time. Keeping more than a few full size images on your PC will use a lot of storage space but they can and often do save the day. If you get any serious software problems, simply rewrite the saved image back to the card and the issues are gone.
All this and I didn't mention speed. Comparing eMMC speed to that of the fastest SD cards is like comparing a snail to a race horse. Regardless of the board you use or the OS you use, the storage read/write speed makes a huge difference.
The eMMC modules are worth the added cost for the speed alone.
