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Raspberry Pi Upgrades Compute Module With 10 Times the CPU Performance (arstechnica.com) 71

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Raspberry Pi Compute Module is getting a big upgrade, with the same processor used in the recently released Raspberry Pi 3. The Compute Module, which is intended for industrial applications, was first released in April 2014 with the same CPU as the first-generation Raspberry Pi. The upgrade announced today has 1GB of RAM and a Broadcom BCM2837 processor that can run at up to 1.2GHz. "This means it provides twice the RAM and roughly ten times the CPU performance of the original Compute Module," the Raspberry Pi Foundation announcement said. This is the second major version of the Compute Module, but it's being called the "Compute Module 3" to match the last flagship Pi's version number. The new Compute Module has more flexible storage options than the original. "One issue with the [Compute Module 1] was the fixed 4GB of eMMC flash storage," the announcement said. But some users wanted to add their own flash storage. "To solve this, two versions of the [Compute Module 3] are being released: one with 4GB eMMC on-board and a 'Lite' model which requires the user to add their own SD card socket or eMMC flash." The core module is tiny so that it can fit into other hardware, but for development purposes there is a separate I/O board with GPIO, USB and MicroUSB, CSI and DSI ports for camera and display boards, HDMI, and MicroSD. The Compute Module 3 and the lite version cost $30 and $25, respectively.
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Raspberry Pi Upgrades Compute Module With 10 Times the CPU Performance

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  • I don't understand the rational behind a 4GB flash card? My rpi has a 64GB USB drive. Maybe speed perhaps (?), but even with going through USB it has enough throughout for almost any application in its class.
    • Maybe it's the sweet spot? You may need 64 GB of storage but how many people would actually need something like that in a small embedded module like this?
    • Red Hat Linux and CentOS require at least 200MB of disk space. The smaller Pi option has 20 times that. It can hold 20 separate installations of Linux. Often, that's enough. When it's not, use an SD card.

      Looking at it another way, for some projects I choose between an Arduino and a Pi. If it's too big for the Arduino, I use a Pi. Some projects are borderline, things that *could* be done with an Arduino, but it would be a stretch. The Arduino 32K-256K of storage. So the Pi has several thousand times a

    • This is for embedded use, mostly - and it's soldered on. Even the summary says they're now offering the choice of expandable storage.

  • Sill only usb bus for storage, networking, etc?

  • Uses? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 0100010001010011 ( 652467 ) on Monday January 16, 2017 @05:49PM (#53679347)

    The article shows a picture of it being used in the back of an NEC monitor.

    Are there any other examples of industrial controls or places that these live?

    • by Anonymous Coward

      People have made media players / set top boxes out of them. I believe it has the same exact foot print as the last one, and they say they will stick to it into the future, so you can make a devices where you can 'upgrade' it.

      This seems to be targeted at people making mid-size production runs of products, probably in the range of 100's or 1000's that aren't big enough to bother with designing custom board, but might need a few custom things on its own mother board.

    • Re:Uses? (Score:4, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @07:49AM (#53682099) Homepage Journal

      The company I work for uses a similar device in a tablet computer (really more of a brick computer, but anyway)... At the time it was developed the Pi Compute didn't exist, which is unfortunately because they one we have turned out to be a pain in the arse.

      They are likely to be used in a lot of industrial applications where the designer doesn't want to build and support their own ARM system and software environment, they just want something they can plug in and run an OS on out of the box, with a few peripherals of their own.

  • But can you run a Beowulf cluster on it?

  • These are still better specs than your average, slow as molasses cable box.

  • I'm waiting for the "soldering gurus" who were screaming why the original RPi was not sold cheaper in component kit form to get the Lite model and solder their eMMCs on those empry BGA pads.

    I remember all the boasting about them reflowing huge multilayer PCBs in their kitchen oven.

  • Sigh it can only decode 1080p H.264/MPEG-4 at 30fps?

    I guess I'll have to wait for at least another generation before I get my mythtv client.

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