Whilst everyone’s waiting on news of the Raspberry Pi 5 Compute Module 5 (CM5), Libre Computer decided to drop their own compute module teasers, with an Amlogic A311D-based, Libre Computer compute module that’s pin-compatible with the Raspberry Pi CM4.
The A311D SoC is a 6-core chip with a Verisilicon NPU rocking 5 TOPS computing power (if that’s your thing). It’s the same SoC used in the Libre Computer Alta Single Board Computer I reviewed a few months ago, so performance should be somewhat similar to the numbers you see in that piece, RAM and storage configurations depending.
Being pin-compatible with the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 is important, though to be expected at this point as it widens the market, with hundreds of compatible carrier boards and solutions already available for this to slot into. They mention in their Twitter thread that they’ve tested it on the Raspberry Pi CM4 IO Board and everything worked out of the box. Given the picture includes a microSD card and a PCIe NIC, this is nice as it shows the PCIe lane is broken out, and microSD storage is available if needed.
With it having microSD storage available, however, it seems that there may not be eMMC flash storage on the module itself, which is a bit of a shame but I know they’re not particularly big fans of soldered-on eMMC so perhaps much like the omission of WiFi, this was a conscious decision.
What will be most exciting about this is that outside of the Raspberry Pi CM4, this will be one of the only compute modules with solid software support out of the box. I’ve gone on and on about how much I enjoy Libre Computer’s approach to software so I won’t go on another crusade on their behalf but being able to quickly and easily download a recent operating system with a mainline Linux kernel is a rarity in this ecosystem these days.
With that, I hope those looking to bridge the gap between a Pi CM4 and CM5 look into this as it’s going to slot into any carrier boards you may have lying around and be up and running within just a few minutes.
To finish, the Twitter thread also mentions a Solitude CM, so will we be seeing a Libre Computer Solitude Compute Module to go alongside this Alta CM? Or was it a typo? Who knows. If I get confirmation on that, along with any other specifications, pricing etc, I’ll update the post to include it. In the meantime, keep an eye out on Libre Computer’s Twitter to follow progress.
