Possible Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 specification with Cortex-A72

It a matter of time before we will see Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+ successor, probably called Compute Module 4, a new milestone of professional embedded IoT module. What might be the specification of this highly expected development board? What changes will it bring to Industrial use of IoT?

Raspberry Pi is gaining recognition in Industry

Almost a year ago, in the beginning of 2019, Raspberry Pi Foundation presented Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+, a successor to previous CM3 version of development board, aimed at businesses and industrial users. The Compute Module uses a standard DDR2 SODIMM (small outline dual in-line memory module) form factor. GPIO and other I/O functions are routed through the 200 pins on the board.

Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+
Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+

What Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 specification might look like

  • Broadcom BCM2711, Quad core Cortex-A72 @ 1.5GHz will highly plausible replace previous Broadcom BCM2837B0, Cortex-A53 64-bit SoC @ 1.2GHz,
  • 1GB, 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM will become a standard options, instead of fixed 1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM,
  • Current flash memory (eMMC) options: 8GB / 16GB / 32GB from CM3+ will probably stay the same,
  • H.265 (4kp60 decode), H264 (1080p60 decode, 1080p30 encode) might replace outdated H.264 (1080p30),
  • and OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics will replace 1.1, 2.0 versions,
  • weight and factor will stay the same, to provide a possibility to upgrade current IoT applications of CM3 and CM3+

A Lite 4 version of Compute Module is to be expected too, without eMMC and probably limited SDRAM options.

TECHBASE’s ModBerry device with RPi Compute Module 3+

With Compute Module 3+ options from Raspberry Pi, we upgraded our ModBerry 500/9500 industrial computers. From now on the ModBerry 500/9500 can be supported with extended eMMC, up to 32GB. Higher memory volume brings new features available for ModBerry series.