The Turing Pi 2 is a small computer made up of… other computers. It allows you to create a cluster of up to four different single-board computers to create your own compact, fanless, low-power server for running cloud apps, AI applications, or home lab software, among other things.
First revealed last summer, the Turing Pi 2 is now raising money through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, and the makers of the cluster board hope to begin shipping units in September to backers who pledge $219 or more. They’ve also revealed that the Turing Pi 2 will support three different types of single-board computer modules.
Last year we learned that the Turing Pi 2 would support the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and NVIDIA Jetson compute modules. But now the folks at Turing Machines have announced they’re launching a new module called the Turing RK1 that features a Rockchip RK3588 processor.
Here’s a list of supported boards:
- Turing RK1 module with Rockchip RK3588 8-core processor, 6 TOPS NPU, and up to 32GB RAM
- Raspberry Pi CM4 with Broadcomm BCM2711 4-core processor and up to 8GB RAM
- NVIDIA Jetson Nano 4-core ARM Cortex-A57 processor and up to 4GB RAM
- NVIDIA Jetson TX2 NX with 2 x NVIDIA Denver 2 cores and 4 x ARM Cortex-A57 cores and up to 4GB RAM
- NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX with NVIDIA Carmel 6-core processor and up to 16GB RAM
Turing Machines notes that the first two modules are good for general computing applications, while the NVIDIA Jetson modules are designed for machine learning. And you can mix and match modules, which means that you could add up to four of the same compute module or pair one or two general compute modules with a machine learning module or two.
The cluster board also has two mini PCIe slots that can be used to connect expansion boards or other accessories, two SATA III ports for storage, a MIPI-DSI display interface, a 40-pin GPIO header, and a set of ports that includes:
- 1 x HDMI
- 2 x Gigabit Ethernet
- 2 x USB 3.0 (plus 2 USB 3.0 headers on the mainboard)
- 1 x micro USB OTG port
- 1 x micro USB flash port
- 1 x SIM card slot
The crowdfunding campaign runs through mid-June and while Turing Machines doesn’t expect to begin shipping the Turing Pi 2 to backers until September, folks who back the campaign will save a little money – the expected retail price is $239.
There’s no word on how much the new Turing RK1 module will cost or when it will be available.
via CNX Software