Banana Pi BPI-CM6 is an octa-core RISC-V system-on-module compatible with Raspberry Pi CM5 carrier boards

Banana Pi BPI-CM6 is a SpacemIT K1 octa-core RISC-V system-on-module that follows the design of the Raspberry Pi CM5, and offers up to 16GB LPDDR4 RAM, up to 128GB eMMC flash, a gigabit Ethernet controller, and a WiFi 6 + Bluetooth 5.2 module.

While it remains (mostly) compatible with the Raspberry Pi CM5, the BPI-CM6 exposes some additional I/Os from the K1 SoC through an additional 100-pin B2B connector. The company also offers a credit card-sized carrier board for the RISC-V SoM with HDMI, dual GbE, two M.2 PCIe x2 sockets, a few USB ports, and more.

Banana Pi BPI-CM6 specifications:

• SoC – SpacemIT K1
  • CPU – 8-core X60 RISC-V processor @ 1.6 GHz
  • GPU – Imagination IMG BXE-2-32 @ 819 MHz with support for OpenGL ES3.2, Vulkan 1.3, OpenCL 3.0; 20 GFLOPS
  • VPU – H.265 and H.264 1080p60 decoding/encoding
  • NPU – None, but the RISC-V cores can deliver up to 2.0 TOPS (INT8) with the RVV 1.0 extension
  • RVA 22 Profile RVV 1.0 compliant
• System Memory – 8GB or 16GB LPDDR4x
• Storage – 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, or 128GB eMMC 5.1 flash
• Networking
  • Realtek RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet controller
  • Realtek RTL8852BS wireless module with dual-band WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, two u.FL antenna connectors
• 3x 100-pin board-to-board connectors for I/Os. Two (mostly) compatible with Raspberry Pi CM5, and another to carry extra I/Os
  • Video Output – HDMI 1.4, MIPI DSI interface
  • Camera – 3x MIPI CSI
  • Networking – Gigabit Ethernet
  • USB – 1x USB 3.0 + 2x USB 2.0
  • PCIe – 5-lane PCIe 2.1
  • 10x UART serial interfaces
  • Note: The full pinout diagram is not available yet
• Power Management – P1 PMIC
• Dimensions – 55 x 40 mm (Raspberry Pi CM5 form factor)
• Tempeature Range – -40°C to 85°C

Software support includes the Ubuntu-based Bianbu Linux distribution, Ubuntu, Debian, and OpenWrt. You’ll find links to Armbian images for Ubuntu and Debian, as well as the “Bianbu” source code for Linux 6.1, U-boot 2022.10, and OpenSBI on the work-in-progress documentation website.

While the Banana Pi BPI-CM6 should work on most carrier boards for the Raspberry Pi CM4 or CM5, the company also designed a credit card-sized carrier board making full use of the RISC-V module’s capabilities.

Carrier board specifications:

• Compatible SoM – Banana Pi BPI-CM6 described above
• Storage
  • MicroSD card slot
  • Optional NVMe SSD via M.2 M-Key socket (PCIe 2.1 x2)
• Video Output – HDMI port, 4-lane MIPI DSI
• Camera I/F – 2x 4-lane MIPI CSI connectors
• Networking – 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports
• USB – USB 3.0 port, USB 2.0 port, USB-C OTG port
• Expansion
  • 2x M.2 M-Key sockets (PCIe 2.1 x2 each)
  • 26-pin GPIO header
• Misc
  • Power, Reset, and MaskROM buttons
  • RTC battery connector
  • RGB LED
  • DIP switch for boot selection
• Power Supply – 12V DC/3A via 5.5/2.1mm power barrel jack
• Dimensions – 85 x 56mm

Banana Pi also showcased a much larger industrial control gateway carrier board in March, but it’s unclear whether that design will ever be for sale, as it may be an internal board for testing or a board for a specific customer.

The BPI-CM6 is not quite the first RISC-V SoM compatible with Raspberry Pi CM4/CM5, as we’ve previously seen the Milk-V Mars CM and Antmicro ARVSOM both based on the StarFive JH7110 SoC. Having said that, the BPI-CM6 features a more powerful K1 octa-core SoC with additional I/Os.

The Banana Pi BPI-CM6 SoM and carrier board(s) do not seem to be available just yet, at least online. It should just be a matter of a few weeks or months.

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