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from the what-will-they-think-of-next? dept.
Ras Pi foundation announces a new product: the compute module.
The compute module contains the guts of a Raspberry Pi (the BCM2835 processor and 512Mbyte of RAM) as well as a 4Gbyte eMMC Flash device (which is the equivalent of the SD card in the Pi). This is all integrated on to a small 67.6x30mm board which fits into a standard DDR2 SODIMM connector (the same type of connector as used for laptop memory). The Flash memory is connected directly to the processor on the board, but the remaining processor interfaces are available to the user via the connector pins.
While not yet what I imagined by only the name i.e a unit to build a shoebox-sized Beowolf cluster of 1K-RasPi-cores the new form factor and pin-out should make this endeavour easier (ahem... for someone skilled in PCB design, EE practician, and a soldering-fu master that has achieved enlightenment... not quite my profile).
(Score: 4, Interesting) by iwoloschin on Thursday April 10 2014, @01:58AM
Hi, EE/Hardware Engineer here.
I just finished designing a board with a similar "Computer On Module", but the one I picked has a Texas Instruments AM335X processor, the same family as the BeagleBone Black. I picked it due to some familiarity with BBB, and the fact that it's super easy to get Linux running on it now. Designing a board isn't necessarily hard, but it's not something most people will be doing. You can actually use KiCAD to do all of the design work, it's F/OSS, and it's not much compared to some of the really fancy packages, but it gets the job done. Even if you spent the time to design a board, I don't know anyone who's going to happily hand solder a SO-DIMM 200 connector. I goofed one of my prototype boards and had to hand solder half of a SO-DIMM 204 connector, and let me tell you, it sucked. A lot. These connectors are designed for automated placement and reflow, not home users with a $20 soldering iron.
So, basically, I'm confused by this. It's a neat idea, simple to implement, but who's going to use it? This space is saturated with CoM vendors, using more open ARM processors, with more features built onto the CoM, though many of them are in the $100-$500 range, not $30. So maybe companies can use this, but I know that I'm not going to bother, since there's other options that are better for me. Home users might use it, but they're not making their own one-off boards for this. I could maybe see companies making daughter-expansion boards that provide more features, but I'm not sure that's a very lucrative market. Then again, maybe I should go design a few boards and throw them on Kickstarter and see what happens.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday April 10 2014, @02:30AM
From the comments of TFA (a blog post really): ---
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by tftp on Thursday April 10 2014, @02:53AM
Yes, it would. As James says, you'll need to design your own PCB, though.
I used those connectors before, and their footprint is in the CAD. It would cost me about 1 hour to produce Gerbers. A few more if you want additional breakout connectors. The catch is in cost, though. Even if the design is free, the manufacturing of the PCB won't be. As a bare minimum you are looking at $66/each (in small quantity) or about $25 each in quantity 25-50. Cheaper boards can be had only in even higher volume, in China. It remains to be seen if the same PCB can satisfy enough people. They may be better off with the original R-Pi that already has all the connectors, even if from all sides of the board.
However if someone is interested in a design that would be of use for many (such as an outdoor, zero-lux HD camera that can be assembled under $100) then it's very much possible. It's a trivial breakout board for anyone who ever made a PCB.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Thursday April 10 2014, @02:34AM
You have answered your own question. I also use COM boards (from Kontron.) But they are relatively expensive, so you cannot just buy one and slap it onto an inexpensive relay board, or something. However a $30 module, and a connector that will cost you $5 in volume, is something else entirely - it may be now suddenly viable if you don't need Atom or other x86.
Personally, when I aim for the lowest cost I use Atmel AVRs - these days that would be AVR32, for my own convenience. if I need Ethernet I drop a W5100 in. This combination covers pretty much everything, except the LCD/HDMI/DP. If those are needed then you need a bigger gun. This product might be very viable, especially considering the time to market. You, as a hardware guy, just connect all wires to all pins (as we do with FPGAs, modulo clocks and bank power) and call it a day. The rest is software - and with R-Pi it can be modularized. If all you want is {Ethernet,USB,RS232,SPI,I2C} to discretes, with soft real time requirements, then R-Pi might work just fine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 10 2014, @08:40AM
A lot of those COM boards are also designed for industrial apps with extended temperature range and such like. Many of them also guarantee their availability and support for many years, as well as having different options with pin compatibility e.g. faster CPU, more RAM or other peripheral choices.
I think it is this in part that pushes the price up.
It will be interesting to see if the Pi So-DIMM offers these assurances too. At $30 it could be quite disruptive.