Pine64 today announced that its Quartz64 single-board computer is now available and revealed a system-on-module (SoM) based on that design called the SOQuartz.
The company said in February that the Quartz64 model-A would feature a Rockchip RK3566 SoC, a veritable smorgasbord of ports, and between 2GB and 8GB of LPDDR4 memory in a board measuring 5.2 x 3.1 x 0.7 inches (133 x 80 x 19mm).
Pine64 isn’t offering any Quartz64 models with 2GB of RAM at launch, however, opting instead for a 4GB model that costs $60 and an 8GB model that costs $80. It didn’t say when a base model featuring 2GB of memory is expected to debut, either.
The Quartz64 model-B is supposed to arrive “in the coming months.” Pine64 said the model-B will feature either a “BL-602 RISC-V 802.11n and BLE 5.0 module, currently undergoing open-sourcing, or an AP6256 802.11ac WiFi + Bluetooth 5.0 module.”
Meet the SOQuartz
Quartz64 laid the foundation for a new SoM called the SOQuartz. The new device should look awful familiar to Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 owners.
”On the bottom of the PCB you will find the now industry-standard 100-pin high density connectors,” it said. ”This means that it will be possible to use the SOQuartz as a drop-in replacement for the most popular solution on the market.”
Put directly: SOQuartz could possibly be a drop-in replacement for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 as the pair appear to be based on the same connector, but hardware and software compatibility is still unknown at this time.
Pine64 said the SOQuartz will feature the RK3566 SoC, the Azurewave AW-CM256SM WiFi 802.11ac Bluetooth and WiFi module with a U.FL antenna connector, and the option of using its eMMC modules or shipping with soldered-on storage.
SOQuartz appears to be in the prototyping stage. Pine64 didn’t offer additional details about the SoM’s specs, expected release date, or price.
