Raspberry Pi Compute Module Release

First time accepted submitter ControlsGeek (156589) writes "The Raspberry Pi Foundation has developed a new product. It is basically a Raspberry Pi model A processor, memory, and flash memory on a DDR2-style SODIMM connector. Also available will be a development board that breaks out all the internal connections. The board design will be open sourced so you can develop your own devices using the BCM2835 processor. No network, but support for 2 HDMI displays and 2 cameras, so 3D TV is a possibility.

Comments

Different use case than standard RPI

[Radium_]

As discussed on the Raspberry forum, there is some integrated memory, but no USB or Ethernet are present.
Liz from the RPI foundation writes that "there’s much more IO, so you can add your own . The idea here is that it’s the barest minimum, so folks working on industrial applications can add the ports and extra connectivity they need."

Re:How about a backplane?

[bobbied]

How much compute power do these guys have, would it be worthwhile to produce a backplane to run several of them in parallel? What about for redundancy in mission critical applications?

They have an IO board that can run ONE of these, but you don't just toss multiple processors on the same bus to get redundancy. The CPU and inter-processor communication setup is going to be an issue you'd have to work out, not to mention the OS support for redundancy or Mufti-Processor operation. Neither the hardware or software problems are always straight forward...

Good luck and let me know when you get it working. I'd love to have one or two.

Mostly pointless

[wiredlogic]

The Compute Module is primarily designed for those who are going to create their own PCB. However, we are also launching something called the Compute Module IO Board to help designers get started.

Anyone going through the process of developing a board can get a simpler and less constrained solution by slapping down the three ICs directly and not have to deal with the cost and headaches of integrating a separate module.

Re:Mostly pointless

[Lemming Mark]

I do remember a talk where Eben Upton said that the routing was relatively complex under the main chip. Pinning it out onto an edge connector presumably gives you the luxury of building a much simpler board to plug it into - design-wise and possibly cost-wise since you might get away with fewer layers.

Seems like small-to-mid volume manufacturers might find it handy, even though high volume manufacturers would presumably just plonk the chips directly on.

Not that I'm an electronic engineer, so obviously take this with a pinch of salt.

Re:BUT, More RAM please sir...

[psergiu]

The BMC chip can access 1GB of RAM, but unfortunatelly 512MB is the largest size currently produced in that form-factor (Chip-on-Chip BGA DDR1).
And the Raspberry Pi Foundations does not buy RAM chips in enough volume to justify to any vendor a custom made memory chip at that price.
So we're stuck with 512MB ... unless this new SODIMM form-factor is so succesful that they have enough volume to get that custom 1GB chip made for them at the same price as the current 512MB one.