Pineboards adds four more Raspberry Pi 5 PCIe HAT+ boards with PCIe x4 slot, mPCIe socket, Coral Dual Edge TPU support, and audio ports

Pineboards, previously known as PineBerry, has launched four new Raspberry Pi HAT+ with a PCIe interface: the Hat uPCIty Lite, HatDrive! Piano, Hat mPCIe, and Hat Ai! Dual.

The Polish company decided to change the name from Pineberry to Pineboards since the “berry” name implied they were manufacturing single-board computers, while Pineboards, not to be confused with Pine64 boards, apparently does not :). Nevertheless, let’s have a look at the four new HAT+ boards.

Hat uPCIty Lite – PCIe x4 slot and ATX power supply

Specifications:

Supported SBCs – Raspberry Pi 5 and other SBCs with a compatible 16-pin PCIe FPC connector and form factor
PCIe
- 16-pin PCIe FPC connector (input)
- PCIe X4 slot (output) to connect PCIe cards such as NVIDIA or AMD graphics cards; Note: only PCIe x1 Gen2 and Gen3 are supported
Misc – 12V and PWR LEDs
Power Supply
- 12V/8A via ATX power connector
- 12V/8A via power barrel jack
- Safety – PCIe Express power delivery is isolated from the Raspberry Pi 5
Dimensions – 65 x 56.50 mm; HAT+ compatible, 4-layer PCB

That Hat ships with an FPC PCIe ribbon cable, spacer pins, and M2.5 screws, so you only need to add your Raspberry Pi 5 SBC and a PCIe card (graphics, networking., etc…) of your choice to get started.

HatDrive! Piano – NVMe storage meets audio

Specifications:

Supported SBCs – Raspberry Pi 5 and other compatible SBCs
Host interfaces
- 16-pin PCIe FPC connector
- 40-Pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header
Storage – M.2 Key-M 2230/2242 socket for NVMe SSD (PCIe x1 Gen2 or Gen3 only)
Audio
- 3.5mm headphone jack (which was removed from the Pi 5, but present in all previous versions) with headphone amplifier
- RCA Line Out
- 112dB Audio Stereo DAC from Texas Instruments with 32-bit, 384kHz PCM Interface
Expansion – 40-Pin Raspberry Pi HAT
Misc
- PWR and ACT (M.2 activity) LEDs
- Dedicated I2C EEPROM memory with HAT ID, allowing for advanced identification and configuration.
Power Management
- Continuous monitoring and diagnostics of the power supply bus, measuring voltage, current, and power parameters in real-time via an I2C interface.
- Integrated voltage regulator delivering up to 3A for the 3.3V power rail, compliant with M.2 (NGFF) standard.
- M.2 card power options – FPC PCIe ribbon cable or 40-pin GPIO connector.
Dimensions – 65 x 56.50 mm; HAT+ compatible, 4-layer PCB

The board ships with an FPC PCIe ribbon cable, spacer pins, M2.5 screws, a spacer pin for M.2 card mounting, and a 40-pin male-female HAT connector.

Hat mPCIe – Cellular and WiFi connectivity via PCIe or USB

Specifications:

Supported SBCs – Raspberry Pi 5 and other compatible SBCs
Host interfaces
- 16-pin PCIe FPC connector
- USB 2.0 Type-C connector to use the mini PCIe module with another host
mPCIe socket with Nano SIM card for WiFi and cellular modules; supports PCIe x1 Gen2 or Gen3 only
Power Supply
- Integrated voltage regulator capable of delivering up to 3A for the 3.3V power rail
- Input via 16-pin PCIe FPC connector or USB-C port
Dimensions – 65 x 56.50 mm; HAT+ compatible, 4-layer PCB

The HAT+ board ships with an FPC PCIe ribbon cable, spacer pins, M2.5 screws, and standoffs to connect a mPCIe card.

Hat AI! Dual – Google Coral Dual Edge TPU for the Raspberry Pi 5

Specifications:

Supported SBCs – Raspberry Pi 5 and other compatible SBCs
Host interface – 16-pin PCIe FPC connector
M.2 Key-E 2230 socket compatible with Google Coral Dual Edge TPU M.2 module
Integrated ASM1182E PCIe packet switch to share the single PCIe lane between two TPUs. Note: Pineboards claims the processing performance is still up to twice the standard TPU module since most data transfers occur when your application is loading the TensorFlow models.
Misc – LED for monitoring the power input of the board
Power Management – Integrated voltage regulator capable of delivering up to 3A for the 3.3V power rail, adhering to the M.2 (NGFF) standard.
Dimensions – 65 x 56.50 mm; HAT+ compatible, 4-layer PCB

The board ships with a FPC PCIe ribbon cable, spacer pins to mount it to the Raspberry Pi SBC, M2.5 screws, and a spacer pin for mounting the M.2 card.

Pricing

All four HAT+ boards are available for the following prices:

Hat uPCIty Lite – €26.99
HatDrive! Piano – €32.99
Hat mPCIe – €18.99
Hat AI! Dual – €35.99 – The PCIe switch does add a bit to the price…

Shipping is not included but becomes free to most countries for orders over 250 Euros.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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.