BigTreeTech known primarily for its 3D printing accessories, has released a Raspberry Pi CM4 (opens in new tab) alternative board. The device, as reported by CNX Software (opens in new tab) , uses the exact same form factor as the Compute Module, but downgrades the specs. Still, if you’re after a low-power board for IoT or other product that needs the kind of IO a CM4 can provide, this looks like a reasonable replacement.
There's also a carrier board that turns it into a full-fat Pi 4 B-style (opens in new tab) board, but the actual specs look weak in comparison to the real thing. You get an Allwinner H616 quad-core Cortex-A53 SoC running at 1.5GHz, a Mali-G31 MP2 GPU and a single gigabyte of RAM. DDR3 RAM, at that. It’s not a great comparison to the tiny powerhouse that is the Pi 4, but it might be enough for a NAS or other low-power computing project.
The CB1 will decode video up to 4K/60 and display it via a single HDMI port on a carrier board. It can communicate using Wi-Fi 4, or 100Mbps Ethernet via a carrier, and there are two board-to-board connectors close enough to those on the CM4 to make it compatible with accessories made for the more powerful module. It measures 55 x 40 x 4.7mm - the same as, you’ve guessed it, the CM4.
There's good software support too, with an image of Debian Linux available to download from GitHub (opens in new tab) . It’s a version of Bullseye, the distro that powers the official Raspberry Pi OS, and uses kernel 5.16, so isn’t particularly out of date, though the chipset is supported in the new 6.0 Linux kernel (opens in new tab) .
Performance should be similar to the Raspberry Pi 3, which was never released in the CM4’s form factor, instead appearing as a DIMM-like board with a broad edge connector. The CB1 is available from the Biqu store (opens in new tab) in a bundle with the Pi adapter for around $40. It has yet to appear on BigTreeTech’s AliExpress store (opens in new tab) .
