Diodes Delight's Next Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Carrier Is Inspired by the Late Pocket CHIP
Open hardware design resurrects the Pocket CHIP with a considerably more powerful module behind it — and Adafruit's bringing it to market.
Diodes Delight, creator of the Piunora carrier board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, is finishing up the design of another — and this time turning to the sadly short-lived Next Thing Co. PocketCHIP for inspiration.
Designed for use with the ultra-low cost CHIP single-board computer, the Pocket CHIP was a handheld carrier board boasting a resistive touch-screen and unusual laminated metal-dome keyboard. Running a customized Linux-based operating system tailored for the device's low resolution, and boasting a readily-accessible general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header at the time, the Pocket CHIP was designed for tinkering on-the-go — but the closure of its creator, Next Thing Co., means the device is now little more than a historical footnote.
A footnote, but not forgotten: Diodes Delight, which recently began crowdfunding for the Piunora Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 carrier board, has specifically name-checked the Pocket CHIP as inspiring its next design, created in partnership with Adafruit for commercial release.
"The keyboard of the Pocket Chip inspired Raspberry Pi handheld we are prototyping for Adafruit is finally working," the company announced in its latest project update. "Suspecting a bug in an earlier kernel that prevented it from working previously. That concludes the bring up of this revision."
While the overall layout is blatant Pocket CHIP, complete with the triangular lanyard hole at the top-right and missing corner at the bottom-left, it's not a slavish copy: The laminated metal-dome keyboard has ben replaced with proper microswitches to improve comfort and reliability, there's no sign of the staggered solder-free GPIO header at the top, and the two holes at the base — designed to take a pen or pencil to allow the device to stand upright on a desk — are missing in the present design. The prototype also lacks touch-screen support, though the company has confirmed this is coming in the next iteration.
The handheld gadget will accept any Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 SOM, giving it up to 8GB of RAM and four Arm Cortex-A72 processor cores plus the option of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity — a considerable upgrade over the CHIP — while USB, HDMI, and microSD are broken out to the upper-rear of the carrier. A battery will be included in the finished design, for portable use.
More details are available on the Diodes Delight Twitter feed, though a launch date and pricing have yet to be discussed. What is known is the company's plan to release the design under an open hardware licence, allowing others to produce their own or customize the device to their own individual needs.