Raspberry Pi moves into professional embedded market

9th June 2014

Mick Elliott

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Raspberry Pi has moved up a notch and its latest product – the Raspberry Pi Compute Module – is now available from RS Components (RS). Explains Eben Upton of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, “The idea for the Compute Module came about from our observations of how a substantial number of industrial and commercial equipment designers were incorporating a Raspberry Pi into their end system."

“We envisage that developers will accelerate the development process by tapping into the resources of the wide Raspberry Pi community that has grown up over the past few years,” he adds.

The Compute Module can initially be ordered from RS as part of a development kit, bundled together with the Compute Board Module IO Development Board, which brings out all of the IO connectivity to form a prototyping platform for electronics design engineers.

Developed specifically for engineers in the professional market to create their own embedded system, the Raspberry Pi Compute Module fits into a standard DDR2 SODIMM socket and provides the same basic features of a standard Raspberry Pi, including a Broadcom BCM2835 processor and 512 Mbyte of RAM. It replaces the SD card with an onboard 4 Gbyte eMMC Flash device, and integrates everything on to a compact 67.6 x 30 mm board.

The Compute Module IO Development Board is a simple, open-source development board that the Compute Module plugs into and enables the designer to program the module’s Flash memory and easily access the processor interfaces via pin headers and flexi connectors, similar to the standard Raspberry Pi. It provides the necessary HDMI socket and USB connectors to create an entire system that can boot the user’s operating system and allow engineers to start designing with the Compute Module.

“Raspberry Pi is showing that it is going beyond its original concept as an educational programming tool to provide embedded engineers with a fast, affordable way to develop their embedded system” said Glenn Jarrett, Global Head of Product Marketing at RS Components. “We envisage that developers will accelerate the development process by tapping into the resources of the wide Raspberry Pi community that has grown up over the past few years.”

The Raspberry Pi Compute Module will be available as a standalone unit from autumn 2014.

The Raspberry Pi Compute Module Development Kit, incorporating the Compute Module and the Compute Module IO Development Board, is available for pre-order from RS globally priced at $229.