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Raspberry Pi Compute Module

raspberrypi.org

31–40 of 116 posts

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#31

It's about time they put some FLASH on-board. SD card has proven time and time again an unreliable medium. You never know if the device would boot up after a "dirty shutdown"

Isn't the eMMC card basically an "SD" card as a chip? Thus this machine should having the same problems with unreliable shutdown and wear-leveling as the normal Pi, with the added culprit that you cannot swap the card for a new one.

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#32

It's about time they put some FLASH on-board. SD card has proven time and time again an unreliable medium. You never know if the device would boot up after a "dirty shutdown"

My understanding is eMMC flash memory is an SD card soldered onto a board, so if anything that problem could be worse without the advantage of a removable card

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#33

The SODIMM form factor is interesting. I know in this case they are just using it because the connectors are easy to come by, but are there any examples of a computer designed to fit in a RAM socket and do processing rather than just statically storing the memory information?

Plenty. Read LinuxGizmos http://linuxgizmos.com (nee LinuxDevices) to keep abreast of them.

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#34
post #8
post #4

Isn't the Pi incredibly underpowered for use as a compute node?

That's entirely dependent on what you're trying to achieve. Sure, if you're trying to mine bitcoins, this hardware alone probably won't be much use. But if you just want to learn about distributed systems, and how to manage a cluster of hosts and distribute tasks between them, this is a great place to start, eg: http://coen.boisestate.edu/ece/raspberry-pi/

Right, so, playing around.

(In my experience, "learning about how to manage distributed systems..." and etcetera isn't much fun and is something you can do fairly well emulating as many systems as you'd like in software.)

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#35
post #6
post #4

Isn't the Pi incredibly underpowered for use as a compute node?

It depends what you want to use it for. I'm imagining this being used in small embedded projects where the physical size of the current Pi is undesirable.

But there are plenty of SODIMM-sized ARM embedded modules with much more compute power than the Pi already.

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#36
post #21
post #4

Isn't the Pi incredibly underpowered for use as a compute node?

Yes, but the graphics part is pretty good (especially compared to the raw 'CPU' part). I'm seeing this as just the same Raspberry Pi without the specific form factor of the original. I'd like to think that someone can make something that looks like a smartphone with this.

Why could they not do that with any of the existing SODIMM-based ARM boards?

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#37
post #2

I'll be interested to see how this progresses. With any luck, it'll open up a market of cheap, well-distributed SOMs, similar to the Pi opening up a market for cheap, well-distributed ARM/Linux Dev Boards. The situation's surprisingly similar: Powerful ARM Dev boards existed before the Pi, but the price was steep, they couldn't be found in traditional distribution channels, and the OS/Driver support was poor at best.…

You really see these being sold in Radio Shack?

With Pis, all the average person needed was a regular keyboard, mouse & monitor to plug in. That's why it worked. That's all been thrown out here.

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#38
This is the answer to the question of how to move from prototyping to production with the Raspberry Pi. So far the answer had been to either deploy (and pay for) a bunch of peripherals you don't need (applications most certainly don't use everything on a board) or to move to a different/custom board.

With the compute module, that answer is now much more concrete. People will still build own boards, but most of the complexity will live on the SOM.

Very exciting times, can't wait to see if the gambit pays off.

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#39
post #37
post #2

I'll be interested to see how this progresses. With any luck, it'll open up a market of cheap, well-distributed SOMs, similar to the Pi opening up a market for cheap, well-distributed ARM/Linux Dev Boards. The situation's surprisingly similar: Powerful ARM Dev boards existed before the Pi, but the price was steep, they couldn't be found in traditional distribution channels, and the OS/Driver support was poor at best.…

You really see these being sold in Radio Shack? With Pis, all the average person needed was a regular keyboard, mouse & monitor to plug in. That's why it worked. That's all been thrown out here.

I think you're gravely misunderstanding the intended goal and target user for this device. It's not "for consumers" but a path for hardware developers to prototype with a full Pi and then ship with a custom unit that's been configured as needed - without having to modify your code.

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#40

It's about time they put some FLASH on-board. SD card has proven time and time again an unreliable medium. You never know if the device would boot up after a "dirty shutdown"

My understanding is eMMC flash memory is an SD card soldered onto a board, so if anything that problem could be worse without the advantage of a removable card

It's very similar but often faster. The Odroid U2 uses removable EMMC storage which has an SD card adaptor, which I feel is a very good middle ground (most of the advantages of both with the disadvantage that the connector on the board is non-standard).
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