We just wrote that Wiretrustee carrier board for Raspberry Pi CM4 with four SATA interfaces was canceled and made open-source hardware a few days ago, but the Axzez Interceptor carrier board is offering a solution that is somewhat similar with 5x SATA ports and designed for NAS, NVR, IoT, and Managed Switch applications.
The Interceptor Carrier Board for Raspberry Pi CM4 notably includes two 4Kp60 capable HDMI ports, 5x SATA ports, 4x RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 4x USB 2.0 interfaces, RS-485, and is powered via an ATX-24 connector, with a Mini-ITX adapter in the works.
Axzez Interceptor specifications:
- Compatible SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4
- Storage
- Support for 5x SATA HDD/SSD via JMicron JMB585 PCIe to SATA controller
- Supports software RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 or 10
- HDD sleep/standby
- Video Output – 2x full-size HDMI 2.0 connectors (4Kp60)
- Networking – 4x Gigabit Ethernet ports via Realtek RTL8367RB switch; programable VLAN
- USB – 4x USB 2.0 interfaces including 2x USB Type-A ports, 2x USB via 9-pin header
- Serial – RS-485 port via terminal block
- Expansion – 2x 40-pin FFC connectors for future expansion (No details yet)
- Misc
- RV3028 real-time clock with battery backup (3V CR2032)
- 3-pin fan connector
- 8-pin header for system power LED, power button, and UART serial cable
- Power Supply – Standard 24-pin ATX power supply connector
There will be some bottlenecks in this board just like with other Raspberry Pi CM4 designed for NAS, as the five SATA ports are going through a single 5 Gbps PCIe interface, and the four Gigabit Ethernet ports are connected through the Gigabit Ethernet MAC of the Broadcom BCM2711 processor.
Axzez provides a Raspberry Pi OS “Bullseye” image with all necessary drivers which can be downloaded from the company’s website. If you don’t like downloading a random OS image from the Internet, the company offers their kernel, modules, overlay, and software config, but for some reason, you’d need to contact them by email to acquire those. You can also ask further questions on their forum if needed.
I understand this is the first board from the company, and Axzez is taking pre-orders for the Interceptor carrier board for $99 with shipping scheduled to start in February.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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