Banana Pi has kicked off August by announcing the BPI-CM2, a system-on-module (SoM) with a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4) form factor. As such, the BPI-CM2 measures 55 x 40 mm and has four M2.5 mounting holes. For context, the company already offers the BPI-CM4 as a Raspberry Pi CM4 alternative. However, the BPI-CM2 will likely serve as a cheaper alternative to the BPI-CM4, as its name suggests.
Unsurprisingly, the BPI-CM2 has a weaker chipset than the BPI-CM4, which relies on the Amlogic A311D with its two Cortex-A53 and four ARM Cortex-A73 CPU cores. In comparison, the BPI-CM2 utilises the Rockchip RK3568 that Banana Pi also uses in the BPI-R2 Pro. Additionally, the company complements the quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 chipset with 2 GB to 8 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and up to 128 GB of eMMC flash storage.
Moreover, the BPI-CM2 has a Realtek RTL8211F for Gigabit Ethernet and an optional Ampak AP6256 modem that supports Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 5. As the images below show, Banana Pi has integrated twin 100-pin connectors, as well as two 70-pin connectors for eDP, PCIe 3.0 and USB 3.0, among other I/O. Currently, Banana Pi has not revealed BPI-CM2 availability or pricing. Instead, it could take months for the company to do so, based on previous product releases. Please see Banana Pi’s wiki page for more details, such as its plans to offer Android, Debian and Ubuntu images.
Prior to writing and translating for Notebookcheck, I worked for various companies including Apple and Neowin. I have a BA in International History and Politics from the University of Leeds, which I have since converted to a Law Degree. Happy to chat on Twitter or Notebookchat.
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