Argon Forty Opens Crowdfunding for Its Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5-Powered Laptop, the ONE UP

Self-described "collective of designers, engineers, software developers, enthusiasts and tinkerers" Argon Forty has opened crowdfunding for a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5-powered laptop formerly known as the Upton One — now simply the Argon ONE UP.

"We've always believed in the power of the Raspberry Pi ecosystem," says Argon Forty's Joseph Zapanta of the group's latest hardware design, "not just as a computer, but mainly as a platform for exploration, education, and innovation. 'Why isn't there a real Raspberry Pi-based laptop?' So we asked ourselves the same thing. Then we stopped over-thinking, [and] unleashed our enveloped ideas."

The result is the Argon ONE UP, first unveiled in February this year as the Upton One — a homage to Raspberry Pi boss and co-founder Eben Upton, which judging by the abrupt name change, didn't go down quite as well as the company had hoped. At its heart is the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5, a computer-on-module based on the same Broadcom BCM2712 system-on-chip — with four Arm Cortex-A76 cores running at up to 2.4GHz, up to 16GB of RAM, and a Broadcom Videocore II graphics processor - as the Raspberry Pi 5 single-board computer.

The module is installed in a custom carrier that, in turn, is installed in a 14" laptop chassis with IPS Full HD (1920×1080) display, keyboard, and trackpad. A user-removable cover at the rear, which doubles as a heatsink, provides access to both the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 — which can be swapped out at-will, only requiring a single shared Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antenna cable to be removed first — and an M.2 slot for optional high-speed Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) storage or an accelerator module for machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML and AI) workloads.

Elsewhere on the laptop are two USB 3.1 Gen. 1 Type-A ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD Card slot, a Kensington locking slot, a full-size HDMI 2.0 port, a USB Type-C power input, and two "modified" USB Type-C ports. These aren't designed for use with normal peripherals, though they work as individual USB 2.0 ports if required; instead, they're for an accessory that provides a 40-pin general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header on the side of the laptop, which can be removed when it's not in use. The laptop also includes a Full HD front-facing camera with privacy switch, dual microphones, and stereo speakers.

"We did not develop a simple carrier board for the CM5," Zapanta claims of the finished device, "but basically a motherboard with separate I/O [Input/Output] boards and carefully designed thermal and layout solutions to make the laptop sleek, fan-cooled, and easy to produce — without sacrificing performance or flexibility. We are a small team. We are not a giant tech company chasing margins. We are just passionate creators, engineers, and dreamers who wanted to build something others wouldn't — simply because it wasn't financially 'safe.' We build for the community."

Argon Forty is now funding the ONE UP on Kickstarter, with physical rewards starting at HK$2,591 (around $330) for "early bird" backers of laptop shell plus GPIO breakout — Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 not included. All rewards are expected to be delivered in October this year, the company has said.