Simply two months after we discovered of the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4S, one other Compute Module variant has appeared on-line. Twitter consumer Pi O in your Pocket has pictures of a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 with what seems to be the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W’s SoC bundle. The cryptically named Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3E has been revealed and it appears to be powering a Wallbox electrical car charging level.
Simply taken supply of a shiny @wallboxchargers EV charger and noticed the tremendous shiny new @Raspberry_Pi CM3E in there with its tremendous swanky mixed CPU/RAM bundle 😎 pic.twitter.com/oEUqKPMwTKJune 9, 2022
Proper now the Raspberry Compute Module 4 is probably the most highly effective and wanted Compute Module variant. However you’ll have a job getting your fingers on one given the present shortages. For industrial prospects, who worth compatibility and continuation of service over energy, the Compute Module 4 continues to be distant of their improve path.
The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3E makes use of the older SODIMM kind issue, which implies it may be dropped into provider boards together with the official IO board and a few third-party boards. Within the pictures we will see the Compute Module 3E getting used with Wallbox’s personal provider board, designed to be used in its vary of EV charging stations. The provider board appears to have an IDE connector. Utilizing an IDE drive appears to be a stretch of the creativeness, so our greatest guess is that it’s a GPIO breakout for the 40 pin GPIO.
From a cursory search of the Raspberry Pi web site we discovered no info on this new board. We additionally checked out Raspberry Pi’s GitHub web page, the identical web page which highlighted the existence of the Compute Module 4S, however alas we could not discover any info on the Compute Module 3E. Even trying contained in the Compute Module 3 machine overlay returned nothing. So let’s do some detective work based mostly on what we will see.
The system on chip (SoC) reference matches that of the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. RP3A0-AU is similar SoC that introduced a lot wanted efficiency to the Zero kind issue. Granted it was considerably missing in RAM, however the RP3A0-AU has the CPU energy equal of the Raspberry Pi 3 however in a a lot smaller kind issue. On the reverse of the Compute Module 3E we will see a Samsung KLM8G1GETF-B041 eMMC chip with 8GB of storage, loads of storage for a fundamental Raspberry Pi OS Lite set up, or a customized OS based mostly on a server picture. Additionally on the reverse of the Compute Module 3E is a knowledge code, 4221, figuring out that the PCB was made within the thirty second week of 2021, and it was made in PRC (Individuals’s Republic of China). So this isn’t a UK-made board from Sony’s Pencoed manufacturing unit, the location the place tens of millions of Raspberry Pi have been made.
| Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3E | Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W | Raspberry Pi 3 | Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | BCM2835 Arm v7 Quad Core Arm Cortex A53 operating at 1 GHz? | BCM2835 Arm v7 Quad Core Arm Cortex A53 operating at 1 GHz | Quad Core 1.2GHz Broadcom BCM2837 64bit CPU | Quad Core 1.2GHz Broadcom BCM2837 64bit CPU |
| RAM | 512MB LPDDR2? | 512MB LPDDR2 | 1GB | 1GB |
| GPIO | Through SODIMM | Normal 40 Pin (unsoldered) | Normal 40 Pin | Through SODIMM |
| Connectors | Service board dependent | Mini HDMI Micro USB energy Micro USB 2.0 knowledge Digital camera connector (Requires adapter) | 4 x USB 2.0, Ethernet, HDMI, Composite, Micro USB energy | Service board dependent |
| Wi-Fi / Bluetooth | None that may be seen | 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi with PCB antenna Bluetooth 4.1, BLE | BCM43438 wi-fi LAN and Bluetooth Low Power (BLE) | Service board dependent |
| Dimensions | 67.6 x 31 mm | 65 x 30mm | 85 x 56mm | 67.6 x 31 mm |
If we assume the RP3A0-AU SoC is similar, the Compute Module 3E seems to be an excellent match for the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. We should always have 4 competent Arm CPU cores operating at 1 GHz, and a moderately meagre 512MB of RAM. Sufficient for an embedded utility, however not one thing that we might actively search for residence use.
The use  of the Compute Module 3E in Wallbox’s EV charging stations is nothing new, however this variant is and we will solely assume that the Compute Module 3E is an industrial solely product, which leads us on to a different variant that caught our eye.
There may be one other “industrial” Pi, the Compute Module 4S. Primarily, it’s the Compute Module 4, crammed into the older SODIMM kind issue. Granted we do not get the complete Compute Module 4 expertise. We’re restricted to 1GB of RAM and there’s no Wi-Fi. However we do get the complete Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core 64-bit Cortex-A72 (Arm v8) CPU operating at 1.5 GHz. Industrial prospects wishing so as to add slightly extra “oomph” to their merchandise with out the additional price of latest provider boards could select this improve path.
We now have contacted Raspberry Pi for remark and are awaiting affirmation of our findings. This story might be up to date as soon as we’ve got extra info.
