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Raspberry Pi Compute Module

raspberrypi.org

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Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#61

Post by jff »

ris wrote: post #34
X-Cubed wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

Yes, pretty much. This is coming as someone who has helped build ARM clusters. You'll spend a lot of time getting all the parts mounted in a decent way, wiring them up, getting power done properly, writing dozens of SD cards for the operating systems, and then you realize you have a cluster of 700MHz nodes with 100Mbit interconnects. You'd be better off spinning up a bunch of VMs if you want to "learn about distributed systems"

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#62

Post by bcohen5055 »

astrodust wrote: post #54
chrisBob wrote: post #17

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?

I recall one processor upgrade for a 1990-era Mac that slotted into the L2 cache slot, back when L2 cache was on the motherboard and used a similar DIMM format. It was extremely unusual, but apparently worked.

I had one of those... it was installed on a IICI, I think it was manufactured by sonnet tech and it was marketed as a PPC upgrade card for the motorolla 68040

Here is a list of all of the sonnect upgrade cards and how they connected http://www.everymac.com/upgrade_cards/sonnettech/

Edit: Added link

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#64

Post by atmosx »

tomswartz07 wrote: post #28
maguirre wrote: post #20

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"

Personally, I liked the SD Card method. It allowed me to keep a few cards with different OS images on them, and quickly swap them out when I wanted to change what the device was used for. It might be a bit more difficult with the built in storage, but I suppose it's nothing that can't be managed.

Yes but say I need to run a rails application with a DB on a Lan (less than 15 users), perfomance is not an issue (nginx + postgresql + puma uses less than 115 MB of RAM!) The only thing stopping you is SDCard's reliability!

A friend of mine had two unrecoverably broken Kingston class 10 SDCards on the same RPi in 6 months. Bad luck maybe, but still I'd love to have something more solid to run applications without fear of data loss.

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#65

Post by Touche »

noonespecial wrote: post #59

The price is getting better but it's still in the "I used my pi for the project" vs the "I used a pi..." range. Things get interesting when a general purpose Linux computer reaches disposable pricing where you just pull a new one from the bin for each project. This feels like about $20usd or less to me.

So what happens to all that e-waste when you throw out an old computer board because you don't feel like wiping it?

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#67

Post by astrodust »

bcohen5055 wrote: post #62
astrodust wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall one processor upgrade for a 1990-era Mac that slotted into the L2 cache slot, back when L2 cache was on the motherboard and used a similar DIMM format. It was extremely unusual, but apparently worked.

I had one of those... it was installed on a IICI, I think it was manufactured by sonnet tech and it was marketed as a PPC upgrade card for the motorolla 68040 Here is a list of all of the sonnect upgrade cards and how they connected http://www.everymac.com/upgrade_cards/sonnettech/ Edit: Added link

Yeah, that was the one. I had a hard time tracking down the proper link, but it's on the page you linked: http://www.everymac.com/upgrade_cards/sonnettech/crescendo_g...

It's clever and insane at the same time. Most processor upgrades physically replace the processor, but this one just bypassed it.

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#68

Post by csense »

KerrickStaley wrote: post #66

Can this be plugged into a DDR2 DIMM and allow host Pi communication (with an appropriate kernel driver)?

The article says:

> But don’t go plugging the Compute Module into your laptop – the pins assignments aren’t even remotely the same!

So the answer is "no."

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#69

Post by astrodust »

ebenupton wrote: post #44
Ellipsis753 wrote: post #42

Looks really cool but I'm slightly disappointed to see that when buying these Compute Modules in bulk they still each cost about the same as a single full Raspberry Pi (Version A). The Compute Modules do have 4gb of built in flash that the Version A doesn't have though.

And an additional 256MB (512MB versus 256MB for the Model A).

I thought all Pi models were 512MB now since the 256MB CPU part was discontinued by the vendor.

Re: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

#70

Post by astrodust »

jnbiche wrote: post #24
fit2rule wrote: post #13

I'm a little disappointed that this isn't a compute-addon for the rPi that gives it some serious calculation power. Ah well .. guess I'll stick to the IMX platform for that ..

Well, the existing RPi's GPU has 24 GFLOP capability, which is roughly the same as the GPU on the baseline i.MX6 (the Vivante GC2000). Now, a lot of that capability has historically been unavailable to RPi users, but they're slowly responding to pressure and opening up the GPU. But I also saw the headline and was hoping for some nice little GPU compute add-on the RPi. Oh well. I still think this is a very promising f…

It's pretty nuts that a tiny little thing like this has gigaflops of compute power.
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