It has been slightly over 4 years for the reason that Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, the computer-on-module impressed by the Raspberry Pi 4 Mannequin B single-board laptop, hit the market — and simply over a 12 months for the reason that launch of the Raspberry Pi 5. That Raspberry Pi was engaged on a successor to the previous primarily based on the latter isn’t any secret, and now that successor is right here: the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5.
Obtainable in a wide range of configurations, from 2GB of RAM and no eMMC all the way in which as much as 8GB of RAM and 64GB eMMC (with a touch on the board of a attainable 128GB eMMC mannequin to observe, and guarantees of a future improve to 16GB too), the Compute Module 5 brings the ability of the Broadcom BCM2712 to the computer-on-module type issue for the primary time.
However does it reside as much as 4 years’ of hopes and goals? Learn on to search out out, as we go hands-on with the Raspberry Pi Growth Package for Compute Module 5.
The {hardware}
- CPU: Broadcom BCM2712 4-core up-to-2.4GHz Arm Cortex-A76 (16nm)
- GPU: Broadcom Videocore-VII
- {Hardware} video decode: H.265 4k60
- {Hardware} video encode: None
- “Southbridge” chip: Raspberry Pi RP1 (40nm)
- RAM: 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB ECC LPDDR4x at 4,267MHz, 16GB in early 2025
- Storage: 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC (CM5 Lite 0GB eMMC, SDIO)
- USB: 2× USB 3.0, 1× USB 2.0
- PCI Specific: 1× PCI Specific Gen. 2
- Community: Gigabit Ethernet PHY with Precision Time Protocol (PTP), non-obligatory dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, Bluetooth Low Power (BLE)
- Show outputs: 2× 4k60 HDMI, 1× DPI parallel show, 2× four-lane MIPI DSI (shared with CSI)
- Digital camera inputs: 2x four-lane MIPI CSI (shared with DSI)
- GPIO: As much as 30× GPIO pins, 5× UART, 5× I2C, 1× I2S, 4× PWM channels, 3× GPCLK outputs
- Energy: USB Energy Supply over USB Kind-C at 5V 5A
- Dimension: 55×40×4.7mm (round 2.17×1.57×0.19″)
- Price: From $45 (CM5 Lite 2GB, CM5002000) to $95 (CM5 8GB/64GB with radio, CM5108064) module-only; CM5 IO Board $20, CM5 IO Case $15, Cooler for CM5 $5, Antenna Package $5; $130 for the Raspberry Pi Growth Package for Compute Module 5 (as reviewed)
Right here ultimately: the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 brings the Broadcom BCM2712 to the computer-on-module sector. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
If the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5’s specs listing seems acquainted, there is a cause for that: it is successfully most of a Raspberry Pi 5, launched again in September final 12 months, in a smaller type issue. It makes use of the identical Broadcom BCM2712 system-on-chip, with the identical 4 Arm Cortex-A76 processor cores operating at as much as 2.4GHz and the identical Videocore-VII graphics processor. It even has the identical in-house RP1 peripheral controller, accountable for the general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) pins.
There are, in fact, variations. The most important is the lack of bodily ports, completely comprehensible on condition that the Compute Module 5 is a computer-on-module; connectivity is as an alternative routed to 2 high-density connectors on the underside, bodily appropriate with these of the sooner Compute Module 4 however with a revised pinout to route a further two USB 2.0 ports. If you wish to really use any of the listed options, the module alone is not sufficient; bear in mind to funds for, or construct, a appropriate service board.
The module is mechanically appropriate with the sooner Compute Module 4, however has a special pinout to accommodate two extra USB lanes. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
An even bigger change will be discovered within the RAM module. Just like the Raspberry Pi 5, the Compute Module 5 is offered with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of LPDDR5 reminiscence — however in contrast to the Raspberry Pi 5 that is Error Correcting Code (ECC) RAM, which might detect and proper bit-flip errors on-the-fly. There’s additionally been point out of a shock late-launch configuration, due early 2025: Compute Module 5 variants with a whopping 16GB of RAM, double the earlier higher restrict.
Given the similarities between the Raspberry Pi 5 and the Compute Module 5, it appears seemingly {that a} non-ECC 16GB RAM module can even attain the full-size mannequin sooner or later — although whether or not it should land earlier than or after the 16GB Compute Module 5 variants has but to be introduced by Raspberry Pi.
The bundle
The model on check for this overview is the CM5104032, with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of eMMC storage, and the non-obligatory radio module, supplied as a part of a brand new bundle dubbed the Raspberry Pi Developer Package for Compute Module 5. This brings collectively the module itself, the brand new Compute Module 5 IO Board service, and one every of the assorted equipment additionally launching right now: an official case for the IO Board with built-in fan, a passive heatsink for the Compute Module 5, dipole antenna and pigtail, a 27W USB Kind-C PD energy provide, two HDMI cables, and a USB Kind-A to Kind-C cable.
The Growth Package bundle contains nearly the whole lot it’s essential get began, together with the brand new IO Board and IO Case. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
It is designed, briefly, to ship the whole lot it’s essential get began with the Compute Module 5 and its IO Board — simply add keyboard, mouse, and a monitor or two, plus a jumper for while you wish to flash the eMMC. It additionally doubles as a jumping-off level to your personal designs: as with the Compute Module 4 IO Board, Raspberry Pi has launched the PCB design information for the Compute Module 5 IO Board so that you can use as a template for designing customized service boards.
The inclusion of not solely a passive heatsink however an energetic fan within the bundle might shock these coming from the Compute Module 4, however not anybody who has experimented with a Raspberry Pi 5: the brand new Broadcom BCM2712 gives three or extra instances the efficiency of the BCM2711, attracts extra energy, and generates extra warmth. There’s much less PCB to sink that warmth, too, and with solely the high-density connectors between the 2 little is bled off into the bigger IO Board: in free-air stress testing, with neither the heatsink nor the fan, the module’s PCB hit 75°C (167°F) whereas the IO Board remained under 40°C (104°F).
The IO Case brings out two USB 3.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, two full-size HDMI ports, and microSD for the CM5 Lite. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
The case is completely sized for the IO Board, which brings out the Compute Module 5’s high-density connectors to extra acquainted ports — together with a Raspberry Pi HAT+-compatible 40-pin general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) header, and a Energy-over-Ethernet (PoE) header appropriate with the present Raspberry Pi PoE HAT+. There are solely two USB ports, each USB 3.0 Kind-A, apart from the USB Kind-C energy enter, a gigabit Ethernet port, microSD slot that’s disabled for something aside from the eMMC-free Compute Module 5 Lite fashions, and a Raspberry Pi 5-like energy button.
The IO board additionally exposes the Compute Module 5’s PCI Specific Gen. 2 lane, although not as a full-size PCIe slot; as an alternative, it is the identical M.2 M-key connector you will discover on the Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ — although with expanded mounting factors supporting 2230-, 2242-, 2260-, and 2280-format M.2 modules. These could possibly be high-speed Non-Risky Reminiscence Specific (NVMe) drives, accelerators for machine studying and synthetic intelligence on the edge, and even third-party breakouts to permit for full-size PCIe add-in boards for use. Lastly, there is a CR2032 battery holder for the real-time clock and two HDMI ports — full-size, moderately than the micro-HDMI ports on the Raspberry Pi 5.
The brand new IO Board brings out the CM5’s PCIe lane to an M.2 slot with 4 mounting factors for various footprints. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
The Antenna Package, in the meantime, is identical as was already accessible for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5, connecting to a compact U.FL connector on the module itself — with an digital swap permitting the Compute Module 5 to change between exterior antenna or on-board PCB hint antenna.
The case, as you’d count on, features a gap into which the antenna mounts, a necessity because the metallic chassis blocks alerts to and from the module’s PCB antenna, together with slots by which the flat versatile circuit (FFC) connectors for MIPI CSI cameras or DSI shows will be routed. The bundled energy provide is identical mannequin as already bought for the Raspberry Pi 5 — and the cables are simply cables, albeit high-quality ones engraved with the Raspberry Pi brand.
Efficiency
Should you’ve learn our hands-on testing of the Raspberry Pi 5, then there will be nothing to shock you right here. The Broadcom BCM2712 on the coronary heart of the Compute Module is an identical to the one discovered on the Raspberry Pi 5, and for all their variations in look and bodily structure the 2 units carry out near-identically.
The most important distinction is in the usage of ECC RAM on the Compute Module 5, which is usually held to carry out barely slower than the non-ECC RAM used on the Raspberry Pi 5 — however we’re speaking fractions of a proportion level, right here, and nothing that ought to give even memory-hungry workloads trigger for concern. It definitely wasn’t one thing our benchmarking may distinguish from the usual margin of error.
No surprises right here: the Compute Module 5 is as much as thrice the pace of the Compute Module 4. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
The usage of the identical BCM2712 chip does, nonetheless, imply that the criticisms from our Raspberry Pi 5 overview apply equally to the Compute Module 5. The most important of those, notably for these engaged on laptop imaginative and prescient tasks, is the lack of {hardware} video encode. Whereas the BCM2711 on the Raspberry Pi 4 and Compute Module 4 has {hardware} video encoding blocks that function independently of the CPU cores, the BCM2712 doesn’t.
Raspberry Pi excuses the lack of {hardware} encode with the honest commentary that the BCM2712’s CPU cores are significantly extra highly effective than these of its predecessors, and simply able to real-time video encode in software program; that does imply that at the very least a few of the CPU energy is not accessible for different workloads whereas it is getting used to encode video.
The small PCB does not ship a lot in the way in which of heatsinking, and a free-air CM5 will quickly throttle underneath sustained load. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
Anybody who has been working with the Compute Module 4 will likely be questioning if it is definitely worth the improve. The reply in nearly all circumstances is sure: the Compute Module 5 is significantly extra highly effective than its predecessor, displaying a tripling of efficiency in lots of real-world workloads. One characteristic that will likely be of specific curiosity to these engaged on Web of Issues (IoT) tasks is the addition of cryptographic acceleration directions: AES encryption and decryption carry out round 12 and 19 instances sooner respectively on the Compute Module 5 than the Compute Module 4.
There’s, in fact, a catch: whereas the Compute Module 5 seems prefer it must be a drop-in substitute for the Compute Module 4, the additional efficiency is tempered by a hungrier energy draw. Beforehand, service boards had been sometimes designed round a 5V 3A energy provide expectation; the Compute Module 5, just like the Raspberry Pi 5, wants extra overhead with a 5V 5A provide — although, once more just like the Raspberry Pi 5, will function with a 3A provide if required, as long as you are not utilizing too many high-power peripheral units.
The heatsink helps, and the IO Board’s fan does likewise — however neither stop throttling altogether underneath sustained all-core and GPU load. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
Thermals are additionally a consideration when transferring to the Compute Module 5. The event package comes with a near-full-coverage heatsink and a fan within the case for a cause, and with out them you will see the Compute Module 5 start to throttle its CPU pace inside about 25 seconds of beginning sustained all-core compute. Even then, although, the Cortex-A76 cores are operating at 1.5GHz and can equal and even beat the efficiency of a Compute Module 4 operating un-throttled.
Neither the passive heatsink nor the IO Case’s fan alone, sadly, are sufficient to maintain the BCM2712 from throttling in an all-cores torture-test situation — and Raspberry Pi’s packaging for the package warns that the heatsink is “not designed to be used with IO Case lid.” There’s additionally a minor bug within the fan’s dealing with: whereas it is speed-controlled with the Compute Module 5 booted up, shutting the module down whereas retaining the ability reside makes it spin at full pace till you hit the ability swap as well again up once more.
Conclusion
Should you’re constructing round a Raspberry Pi Compute Module, there’s little cause to stay with the older Compute Module 4 household — until you are optimizing for a restricted peak energy draw, or want the {hardware} video encode blocks lacking from the brand new GPU. The Compute Module 5 is significantly sooner than its predecessor, and the extra USB lanes will enchantment to these trying to put it on the coronary heart of one thing with loads of peripherals.
Variants as much as 8GB of RAM and 64GB eMMC can be found at launch, with 16GB fashions teased for early 2025. (📷: Raspberry Pi)
The opposite cause to stay with the Compute Module 4 could be value. The Compute Module 5 is, unsurprisingly, costlier on the decrease finish of the vary — even earlier than you consider anticipated reductions as resellers look to scale back their inventory of the older fashions.
The most cost effective mannequin of Compute Module 4, the CM4001000 (CM4 Lite, 1GB RAM), launched at simply $30 with the double-the-RAM CM4002000 (CM4 Lite, 2GB RAM) priced at $35; the most cost effective Compute Module 5, the CM5002000 (CM5 Lite, 2GB RAM) is $45, a ten-buck premium. Ten {dollars} is not a lot, true, however you will nearly definitely wish to add at the very least the Raspberry Pi CM5 Cooler to your invoice of supplies — bumping the worth up by one other $5 on prime. For that you simply get a rough-trebling-or-better of efficiency, which for all however essentially the most cost-conscious design must be seen as the cut price it’s.
The worth premium disappears while you go up-market: the range-topping CM5108064 (CM5, 8GB RAM, 64GB eMMC) is identical $95 because the CM4108032 (CM4, 8GB RAM, 32GB eMMC) launched at, regardless of having double the eMMC storage.
The Compute Module 5 is a heck of an improve for not way more money, however bear in mind to account for its thermal efficiency in your designs. (📷: Gareth Halfacree)
Thermal efficiency, although, is a matter — unsurprising, on condition that it is a difficulty for the full-size Raspberry Pi 5, too, regardless of its bigger PCB. Neither the passive heatsink nor the energetic fan within the IO Case are sufficient to let the CPU and GPU run at full tilt for greater than half a minute or so earlier than it is thermally throttled, and you are not in a position to make use of the 2 collectively for boosted cooling.
The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 is now accessible to order from Raspberry Pi resellers, and can stay in manufacturing till at the very least January 2036.
