4 ms·

Pineboards AI HAT enables Hailo-8L and NVMe boot storage on a Pi 5

46 points by sthlmb 2y ago

NewJazz 2y ago
We are not affiliated with Raspberry Pi Ltd. All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Seems they aren't affiliated with Pine64 either...
- SMART_failure 2y ago
  I actually see that as a positive
  - ge96 2y ago
    Man I had high hopes for Pine64 but open source software is also not great. I'm talking a $400 phone with cameras that don't work. Which isn't Pine's fault but yeah.
    - SMART_failure 2y ago
      Well it is. Their entire business was to work with the open source community, and they haven’t.
      - ErikBjare 2y ago
        Business? I never saw them that way, and I don't think they do either.
jsheard 2y ago
Manufacturers are pushing the Pi 5s PCIe interface to the absolute limit now, well beyond what's practical, but it's fun at least. https://geekworm.com/products/x1011 https://geekworm.com/products/x1011 Four NVMe drives multiplexed onto a single PCIe lane? Sure, why not! https://pineboards.io/products/hat-upcity-lite-for-raspberry-pi-5 https://pineboards.io/products/hat-upcity-lite-for-raspberry... The OP also has a board which breaks the lane out to a full size PCIe slot, so you can put a 4090 in there. You shouldn't, but you can.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- ssl-3 2y ago
  We used to multiplex drives onto a SCSI bus. We also once multiplexed everything on a single ISA or PCI bus. It's not necessarily the most performant thing for parallel[ish] operations, but there's nothing broken about the idea. It works.
varispeed 2y ago
I don't know. I think this is a bit pointless. I'd rather see "a hat" for Intel N100. I have Pi 5 and I wish I bought N100. It's unstable, loses internet connection after few days and I have to manually power cycle it. NVMe is patchy, I had to buy a few modules until I found one that is working, but I don't trust it. Seems like RPi 5 was rushed to stay relevant, but it wasn't thought through.
- jsheard 2y ago
  Those small AI modules use the same form factor as standard WiFi cards so you don't really need a specialized hat, you could just plug that module straight into many N100 machines in lieu of WiFi. edit: as mentioned below, make sure the machine you buy has a socketed WiFi module.
  - person4268 2y ago
    That might not work; I recently disassembled a mini PC with an Intel N95, and the wifi chip was soldered and integrated into the mainboard. Now, if the SSD was NVMe, I suppose you could use that for PCIe (possibly with some sort of adapter?) and boot from some other form of storage, of course.
  - linotype 2y ago
    Yeah just make sure to buy one of the models with a 2.5” drive for storage, or one with two NVME slots. Then you get to keep WiFi as well.
- moffkalast 2y ago
  Any N100 board that has a PCIe connector exposed is basically mini ITX sized, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of a SBC imo. There are lots of problems with the Pi 5 (the absurd power draw, the lack of eMMC, breaking 10 years of GPIO compatibility), but the PCIe connector is definitely not one of them. In fact it's probably the best thing about it by far because it sets up a new standard, and soon every random SBC will have the same PCIe out port so they can run all of these compatible boards. Some might even support more than one lane eventually.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

46 points by sthlmb 2y ago

We are not affiliated with Raspberry Pi Ltd. All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Seems they aren't affiliated with Pine64 either...

SMART_failure 2y ago
I actually see that as a positive
- ge96 2y ago
  Man I had high hopes for Pine64 but open source software is also not great. I'm talking a $400 phone with cameras that don't work. Which isn't Pine's fault but yeah.
  - SMART_failure 2y ago
    Well it is. Their entire business was to work with the open source community, and they haven’t.
    - ErikBjare 2y ago
      Business? I never saw them that way, and I don't think they do either.

jsheard 2y ago

Manufacturers are pushing the Pi 5s PCIe interface to the absolute limit now, well beyond what's practical, but it's fun at least. https://geekworm.com/products/x1011 https://geekworm.com/products/x1011 Four NVMe drives multiplexed onto a single PCIe lane? Sure, why not! https://pineboards.io/products/hat-upcity-lite-for-raspberry-pi-5 https://pineboards.io/products/hat-upcity-lite-for-raspberry... The OP also has a board which breaks the lane out to a full size PCIe slot, so you can put a 4090 in there. You shouldn't, but you can.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
ssl-3 2y ago
We used to multiplex drives onto a SCSI bus. We also once multiplexed everything on a single ISA or PCI bus. It's not necessarily the most performant thing for parallel[ish] operations, but there's nothing broken about the idea. It works.

varispeed 2y ago

I don't know. I think this is a bit pointless. I'd rather see "a hat" for Intel N100. I have Pi 5 and I wish I bought N100. It's unstable, loses internet connection after few days and I have to manually power cycle it. NVMe is patchy, I had to buy a few modules until I found one that is working, but I don't trust it. Seems like RPi 5 was rushed to stay relevant, but it wasn't thought through.

jsheard 2y ago
Those small AI modules use the same form factor as standard WiFi cards so you don't really need a specialized hat, you could just plug that module straight into many N100 machines in lieu of WiFi. edit: as mentioned below, make sure the machine you buy has a socketed WiFi module.
- person4268 2y ago
  That might not work; I recently disassembled a mini PC with an Intel N95, and the wifi chip was soldered and integrated into the mainboard. Now, if the SSD was NVMe, I suppose you could use that for PCIe (possibly with some sort of adapter?) and boot from some other form of storage, of course.
- linotype 2y ago
  Yeah just make sure to buy one of the models with a 2.5” drive for storage, or one with two NVME slots. Then you get to keep WiFi as well.
moffkalast 2y ago
Any N100 board that has a PCIe connector exposed is basically mini ITX sized, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of a SBC imo. There are lots of problems with the Pi 5 (the absurd power draw, the lack of eMMC, breaking 10 years of GPIO compatibility), but the PCIe connector is definitely not one of them. In fact it's probably the best thing about it by far because it sets up a new standard, and soon every random SBC will have the same PCIe out port so they can run all of these compatible boards. Some might even support more than one lane eventually.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]