FINALLY! Native M.2 NVMe on a Raspberry Pi - CM4 TOFU

finally a raspberry pi with a built-in m.2 slot except this isn't the traditional raspberry pi model b you might be thinking of this is the tofu built by auratech it's a companion board for the raspberry pi compute module 4. this little tiny pie that's smaller than a credit card the compute module 4 is like a pi 4 without any i o ports instead you plug it into a carrier board like this tofu and you get all the neat features the tofu builds on top of the pie hardware i'd like to thank the swiss company aurotech for sending me this tofu to test and review it certainly tastes better than the real thing and like another popular swiss product this thing crams a lot of features into a very small package just nine centimeters square but let's start on the bottom and take a look at the m.2 slot on the tofu it's not quite what you might expect some other compute module 4 boards i've been keeping my eye on are designed around the more popular m key slot that accepts 80 millimeter long ssds and other boards have the 30 millimeter long a plus e key slots that accept things like the google coral tpu or wi-fi six cards like the intel ax200 that i tested but this board is a little different it has a b type m.2 2242 socket which means it's only compatible out of the box with b or b and m key devices and unlike some other m.2 slots the slot on this board only has one standoff at 42 millimeters so you can't fit in shorter devices like this tiny 30 millimeter b plus m key western digital nvme drive i mean i did get it to work using a piece of kapton tape to hold it down because that's what i do but that's not all that's secure i wouldn't want to rely on a piece of tape for any critical data on my pie assuming you have a 42 millimeter long m.2 device though the tofu passes it straight to the pci express gen 2 lane on the raspberry pi which is really cool for example i have this king spec nvme drive which is the correct length for the tofu slot and after installing it it shows right up on the pi and i can format and use the hard drive like any other drive and it is fast way faster than using emmc or a micro sd card when i reviewed the argon 1 m.2 which has an internal ssd that connects to a pi 4 using the usb 3 bus i ended the review saying i'd like to see the same exact thing but with a built-in m.2 slot instead of the usb to ssd adapter well this is basically that and it even performs better because the drive is communicating directly over the pi's pci express bus instead of through a usb to sata adapter just look at those random i o speeds but for the tofu make sure you get an nvme drive and not a sata drive like you would for the argon one sata drives require a sata controller which the tofu doesn't have not that that's a problem there seem to be more nvme drives available in the 42 millimeter length than static drives and they generally run faster and before you ask in the comments no you can't boot off an nvme drive at least not yet that's something the pi's firmware would have to be updated to support and it seems like it may happen but there's no timeline for it yet anyways nvme drives are one of many different accessories you can install on the tofu what it's really designed for what makes it the most happy little board is a 4g lte module like this sierra wireless air prime the tofu includes a built-in sim tray so you can get mobile service on it as more industrial systems require more internet connectivity it's important to make robust control boards with both wireless and wired networking and the raspberry pi compute module is a great platform to build on since it can run a full linux os and it's easy to remotely administer and the tofu has another feature that's extremely useful in industrial settings it accepts a wide range of power inputs you can either use a barrel plug like the regular compute module i o board or a 3.5 millimeter terminal block and power the board with between 7.5 to 28 volts of dc power it also includes a 5 volt 3.5 amp fuse to protect against over current and also supports power over ethernet through the standard pi poe hat since it includes the extra 4 pins used to extract power from the ethernet connector and deliver it to the hat but it's not only for industry the dollar price tag is a little high for the impulse buy than stick it in a drawer use case most of us using pies are familiar with but it is a great compact board for things like pie clusters remote camera installations or an interactive display system it preserves most of the ports you would get on the full-size i o board in half the space it includes one csi camera connector one dsi display connector and one full-size hdmi port it also has one usb 2.0 port on one side and two usb 2.0 ports on the other side but make sure you enable them in your pi's boot config since pios disables usp on the compute module by default finally it has a gigabit ethernet jack a full 40 pin gpio header a micro sd card slot for light cm4 modules without emmc and even a usbc port the usbc port is useful for flashing compute modules with emmc and provides both power and data in that scenario if you push down the boot button while plugging into another computer but it doesn't supply enough power to run the entire tofu board if you try it it might boot but it won't power the m.2 slot underneath finally on the bottom there's the m.2 2242 slot and a micro sim slot for wireless now speaking of similarities to the argon 1 m.2 i mentioned earlier this board is almost a perfect shoe-in for a replacement except it has no case so i decided to learn something new this year and i spent a few hours in fusion 360 designing the first ever 3d object i've made a case for the tofu i have to thank sean victor for a great tutorial on his youtube channel it showed pretty much every step required to build a case from a pcb i downloaded the step file from the tofu website imported it into fusion 360 and spent a while measuring all the port locations and placing them on my new case design i printed a copy on my under 3 and besides realizing i still had some glow-in-the-dark pla loaded up the ports didn't quite fit so i printed a new version in black with the right port locations but then i realized i didn't have a way to screw the board into the case so i fixed the size of the standoffs and printed it again but this time the case started popping off the bed since i forgot to set the right bed temperature undaunted i printed case number four and this time i finally got everything right i used my soldering iron to press in some press-fit m3 screw holders then put the board in and it fit just like a glove i haven't finished off the case with a fan on top yet but with its built-in m.2 slot this is now one of the most flexible small pie desktop options out there but at over a hundred dollars shipped to the us i don't expect everyone to go out and buy one of these things but i like the design and there are some applications where it's a great value like for remote installations using solar power and a battery for camera surveillance or for remote monitoring or control systems the tofu is one of a few dozen new compute module based projects i'm tracking on my website you can go check out the tofu at tofu.oratech.com and also check out all the boards i'm tracking on my pi pci website which is linked in the description thanks again to oratech for sending this board my way and until next time i'm jeff gearling now okay let's go from the top we're familiar we're farmers here in the midwest i'm just making words up now i'll stop that i printed a copy on my under three and besides realizing that's not the way to say that word the disadvantage of doing these things after bedtime

Channel: Jeff Geerling

Views: 150,098

Rating: 4.9485369 out of 5

Keywords: raspberry pi, tofu, review, m2, m.2, board, cm4, compute module 4, compute module, module, sbc, computer, ssd, sata, nvme, pcie, pci express, lte, 4g, 5g, modem, ngff, 2242, 2230, usim, sim, mobile, industrial, enclosure, case, 3d printing, pcb, poe, 12v, carrier, performance, oratek, swiss, switzerland, pi, electronics, remote, monitoring, control, industry

Id: m-QSQ24_8LY

Length: 8min 17sec (497 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/vilette]

Over 100$ + Rpi module + supply +...
That's a lot to pay for having RPi label on your computer
We are far from the origins
Definitely no go for me, you can have an X64 miniPC for lower than that with more perfs

[u/trendoid_]

What a boss, Geerling!

[u/404invalid-user]

This looks like an ad for that board

[u/realhero83]

<$100 for a toy. Shouldn't cost more for the PI