Pine Launches the Quartz64 Model A for Early Adopters and Developers, Teases the SOQuartz

Model A available to buy, but the Model B has been delayed. The SOQuartz, meanwhile, is a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 alternative.

Pine has officially launched its Quartz64 single-board computer, following a delay caused by component shortages — but has reversed an earlier decision to launch both the Model A and Model B variants side-by-side, while unveiling an entirely new system-on-module design dubbed the SOQuartz.

Pine unveiled the Quartz64 earlier this year, promising a single-board computer which could double as a development platform for future products like its PinePhone smartphone. Much like the Raspberry Pi family, the company planned to split the device range in two: A Model A and a Model B.

Designed around the Rockchip RK3566, the Quartz64 features a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor running at 1.8GHz, an Arm Mali-G52 2EE Bifrost GPU running at 800MHz, a neural processing unit (NPU) coprocessor offering up to 0.8 TOPS, 2-8GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 16MB of SPI flash, a gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 5.0 as an option on the Model A and built-in on the Model B, and microSD storage with an option for an eMMC module.

Pine has announced the launch of the Quartz64, plus an all-new family entry: The SOQuartz. (📹: Pine)

Where the two models really differ, though, is in connectivity: The Model A includes a SATA 6.0 port, four-lane embedded DisplayPort (eDP), a four-lane DSI port, a four-lane CSI port, an SPI-with-interrupt touch-panel connector, lithium battery charging circuit, a 2x10-pin general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header, and an open-ended PCI Express 2.0 slot; the Model B, however, lacks the eDP and SATA ports, touch-panel connector, and charging circuit and drops to two-lane DSI and CSI connectivity while swapping the PCIe slot for an M.2 slot, but gains on-board Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and a larger 2x20-pin GPIO header.

At the time of the announcement, Pine was planning to launch the Model A first and the Model B second. A delay caused by the shortage of a key component, however, was announced two months ago — and the plan shifted towards launching the Model A and Model B simultaneously.

Now, the Model A is available to order — but there's no sign of the Model B. "In the coming months you will also see us introduce the Quartz64 Model B, a physically smaller board, sharing the same footprint of our ROCK64 computer," Pine's Lukasz Erecinsk writes in the latest project update, which does not address the reason for the most recent shift in launch schedule.

"The smaller size means this device is great for education, tinkering, personal projects, and similar applications. However, the smaller form factor limits the available IO. For this reason, the Quartz64 Model B will not be used as a development platform for our future devices in consumer form factors."

In the same update Erecinsk unveiled a system-on-module (SOM) entry in the Quartz family, dubbed the SOQuartz — and boasting support for use as a drop-in replacement on Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 carrier boards.. "The SOQuartz is a compute module that is software compatible and built on the same architecture as the Quartz64 single board computers," he explains. The module will share the Quartz64 RAM configuration and host onboard eMMC flash storage."

"Flash storage can be added via the eMMC socket (it accepts standard PINE64 eMMC modules) or by having it soldered on the back-side of the PCB. The option for a soldered-on eMMC adds a degree of flexibility for industry partners who may wish to standardize a hardware rollout. On the bottom of the PCB you will find the now industry-standard 100-pin high density connectors. This means that it will be possible to use the SOQuartz as a drop-in replacement for the most popular solution on the market."

The Quartz64 Model A, meanwhile, is available to order in two RAM capacities: A 4GB model at $59.99, and an 8GB model at $79.99, both live now on the company store.

Those looking to buy are warned, however, that the boards are "only suitable for developers and advanced Linux users wishing to contribute to early software development," and that it is likely to be "months before end-users and industry partners can reliably deploy it."

Gareth Halfacree
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.
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