BPI-CM5 Pro: New Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 rival arrives with superior memory, connectivity and built-in NPU

Banana Pi has now introduced the BPI-CM5 Pro, two months after releasing the similarly-named BPI-M5 Pro globally. However, while the BPI-M5 Pro is a single-board computer (SBC) that measures 92 x 62 mm, the BPI-CM5 Pro is a compute module that serves to rival the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (curr. $39 on Amazon).

The BPI-CM5 Pro is underpinned by the same chipset as its BPI-M5 Pro counterpart, though. Specifically, the former utilises the Rockchip RK3576, which provides four ARM Cortex-A72 CPU cores, four Cortex-A53 CPU cores, a Mali-G52 MC3 GPU and an NPU that puts out 6 TOPS (INT8). As CNX Software notes, the Rockchip RK3576 should perform about as well as the Broadcom BCM2711 that underpins the Raspberry Pi CM4.

In short, the latter has superior software support compared to the former. Nonetheless, the BPI-CM5 Pro has a few things going for it that Raspberry Pi's equivalent lacks, such as a dedicated NPU, an additional PCIe interface and up to 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Added to that, the BPI-CM5 Pro offers Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, as well as 128 GB of flash storage.

Currently, the compute module is only available through partner ArmSoM as the ArmSoM-CM5 for $103 with 8 GB RAM and 64 GB of storage. CNX Software claims that the board will eventually be sold by Banana Pi through its AliExpress store, though. Unfortunately, it remains to be seen when that will be the case at the time of publication.