Self-described “collective of designers, engineers, software program builders, fanatics and tinkerers” Argon Forty has opened crowdfunding for a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5-powered laptop computer previously referred to as the Upton One — now merely the Argon ONE UP.
“We have all the time believed within the energy of the Raspberry Pi ecosystem,” says Argon Forty’s Joseph Zapanta of the group’s newest {hardware} design, “not simply as a pc, however primarily as a platform for exploration, schooling, and innovation. ‘Why is not there an actual Raspberry Pi-based laptop computer?’ So we requested ourselves the identical factor. Then we stopped over-thinking, [and] unleashed our enveloped concepts.”
The result’s the Argon ONE UP, first unveiled in February this yr because the Upton One — a homage to Raspberry Pi boss and co-founder Eben Upton, which judging by the abrupt title change, did not go down fairly in addition to the corporate had hoped. At its coronary heart is the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5, a computer-on-module based mostly on the identical Broadcom BCM2712 system-on-chip — with 4 Arm Cortex-A76 cores working at as much as 2.4GHz, as much as 16GB of RAM, and a Broadcom Videocore II graphics processor – because the Raspberry Pi 5 single-board pc.
The module is put in in a customized service that, in flip, is put in in a 14″ laptop computer chassis with IPS Full HD (1920×1080) show, keyboard, and trackpad. A user-removable cowl on the rear, which doubles as a heatsink, gives entry to each the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 — which may be swapped out at-will, solely requiring a single shared Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antenna cable to be eliminated first — and an M.2 slot for elective high-speed Non-Unstable Reminiscence Specific (NVMe) storage or an accelerator module for machine studying and synthetic intelligence (ML and AI) workloads.
Elsewhere on the laptop computer are two USB 3.1 Gen. 1 Sort-A ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD Card slot, a Kensington locking slot, a full-size HDMI 2.0 port, a USB Sort-C energy enter, and two “modified” USB Sort-C ports. These aren’t designed to be used with regular peripherals, although they work as particular person USB 2.0 ports if required; as an alternative, they’re for an adjunct that gives a 40-pin general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) header on the facet of the laptop computer, which may be eliminated when it is not in use. The laptop computer additionally features a Full HD front-facing digital camera with privateness swap, twin microphones, and stereo audio system.
A canopy behind the laptop computer doubles as a heatsink for the Raspberry Pi CM5 and an elective M.2 NVMe SSD or accelerator. (📹: Argon Forty)
“We didn’t develop a easy service board for the CM5,” Zapanta claims of the completed system, “however principally a motherboard with separate I/O [Input/Output] boards and thoroughly designed thermal and structure options to make the laptop computer glossy, fan-cooled, and simple to provide — with out sacrificing efficiency or flexibility. We’re a small workforce. We aren’t an enormous tech firm chasing margins. We’re simply passionate creators, engineers, and dreamers who wished to construct one thing others would not — just because it wasn’t financially ‘protected.’ We construct for the neighborhood.”
Argon Forty is now funding the ONE UP on Kickstarter, with bodily rewards beginning at HK$2,591 (round $330) for “early chicken” backers of laptop computer shell plus GPIO breakout — Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 not included. All rewards are anticipated to be delivered in October this yr, the corporate has stated.
