This week the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched the Compute Module 3, a tiny computer-on-a-module that looks like a stick of laptop memory. The $30 Compute Module 3 has a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor and 1GB of RAM and it’s aimed at developers looking for a small, cheap, low-power computer to power their hardware projects.

Want a similar PC-on-a-module with twice as much memory? Then there’s the SOPINE A64, which is coming in February for $29 and up.

This module comes from PINE64, the same company working on an upcoming ARM-based laptop called the Pinebook.

The SOPINE64 features an Allwinner A64-ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core processor with Mali-400MP2 graphics, 2GB of RAM, and a microSD card slot for storage.

PINE64 also offers an optional baseboard with USB, HDMI, and other connectors. You can buy the baseboard for $15 or buy a Baseboard + SOPINE A64 bundle for $35.

The SOPINE A64 on its own is priced at $29, which is a buck less than the price for a Compute Module 3, but there are a few key differences. While the two products have similar processors, the SOPINE64 uses an Allwinner chip rather than a Broadcomm CPU and PINE64’s model has 2GB of RAM rather than 1GB. But it also lacks any built-in storage, which makes it more like the $25 Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 Lite.

Another key difference: there’s a large developer community working on Raspberry Pi-compatible software. While the SOPINE64 is said to support Android and Ubuntu, you’ll probably find that the Raspberry Pi model is better supported.

via CNX Software

 

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8 replies on “SOPINE A64 $29 PC card has 2X the RAM of Raspberry Pi’s Compute Module 3”

  1. The most common reason to want more than 1GB of ram is to run a graphical environment, but the Pine only has accelerated video under Android so that negates most of the advantage.

    There really needs to be a campaign to get ARM Holdings to see reason on releasing specs on Mali. And for that matter releasing an affordable video controller that can support a full OpenGL instead of only EGL.

  2. I was hoping the pin out would be the same as the Pi Compute model…. but nope.

    1. The Pine is Ddr3 sodimm vs Rpi wanting to be unique and going with Ddr2 sodimm. The Pine64 company made the idea first, then Rpi copies it…

      Also if you want it to work you have to buy a $115 Io board with the Rpi module itself…

  3. So they are selling the $29 board and the $15 baseboard together for $25?

    1. Nope I went to the site and its actually $35 for both and $40 with power supply as well

      1. Sorry. Turns out the 2 and 3 are right next to one another on my keyboard. Horrible design. Someone should look into that.

        Fixing the typo now. 🙂

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