Notebookcheck Logo

Novasom M9: A Raspberry Pi alternative that supports M.2 drives and three video outputs

Novasom M9: A Raspberry Pi alternative that supports M.2 drives and three video outputs (Image source: Novasom Industries)
Novasom M9: A Raspberry Pi alternative that supports M.2 drives and three video outputs (Image source: Novasom Industries)
The Novasom M9 is a new alternative to the Raspberry Pi that not only supports M.2 drives, but supports three display outputs. The board has 128 GB of flash storage too, along with Gigabit Ethernet and four USB connections.

Novasom Industries has unveiled its latest single-board computer (SBC), the Novasom M9. A Rockchip RK3399 powers the 105 x 56 mm SBC, which integrates four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, two Cortex-A72 cores and an ARM Mali-T860 MP4 GPU. Novasom Industries has complemented the RK3399 with up to 4 GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 128 GB of eMMC flash storage.

However, the M9 also has an M.2 slot for adding an NVMe drive, giving it an edge of many SBCs. Naturally, Novasom Industries has included a microSD card slot too. Either storage medium could be used to install and run an OS from, though. Additionally, the M9 has three video outputs, split across DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI, and MIPI DSI. There is also two MIPI CSI camera connections and a 26-pin expansion header. Moreover, Novasom Industries has included one USB Type-A port and a further USB connections via expansion headers. Two of these support the newer USB 3.0 standard, while the other two run on USB 2.0.

The M9 has a Gigabit Ethernet port too, but the device supports up to WiFi 802.11 ac and Bluetooth 4.1 LE.  millimeter board is equipped with a GPIO header. According to the manufacturer, the M9 can be powered by an uninterruptible power supply and will run Android and Linux BSP.

Sadly, Novasom Industries is yet to disclose how much the Novasom M9 will cost. Similarly, it is unknown when the company will release the board. Novasom Industries should publish more details on its M-Line page in due course, though.

(Image source: Novasom Industries)
Read all 1 comments / answer
static version load dynamic
Loading Comments
Comment on this article
Please share our article, every link counts!
> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2020 11 > Novasom M9: A Raspberry Pi alternative that supports M.2 drives and three video outputs
Alex Alderson, 2020-11- 3 (Update: 2021-09-28)