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.
- 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.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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