The latest version of the Compute Module is the Compute Module 4 (CM4). It is the recommended Compute Module for all current and future development.

There is also a KiCad PCB design set available:

Raspberry Pi CM1, CM3 and CM3L are supported products with an End-of-Life (EOL) date no earlier than January 2026. The Compute Module 3+ offers improved thermal performance, and a wider range of Flash memory options.

Raspberry Pi CM3+ and CM3+ Lite are supported prodicts with an End-of-Life (EOL) date no earlier than January 2026.

Schematics for the Compute Module 1, 3 and 3L

Schematics for the Compute Module IO board (CMIO):

Schematics for the Compute Module camera/display adapter board (CMCDA):

To flash the Compute Module eMMC, you either need a Linux system (a Raspberry Pi is recommended, or Ubuntu on a PC) or a Windows system (Windows 10 is recommended). For BCM2837 (CM3), a bug which affected the Mac has been fixed, so this will also work.

The default bootloader configuration on CM4 is designed to support bringup and development on a Compute Module 4 IO board and the software version flashed at manufacture may be older than the latest release. For final products please consider:-

N.B. The Compute Module 4 ROM never runs recovery.bin from SD/EMMC and the rpi-eeprom-update service is not enabled by default. This is necessary because the EMMC is not removable and an invalid recovery.bin file would prevent the system from booting. This can be overridden and used with self-update mode where the bootloader can be updated from USB MSD or Network boot. However, self-update mode is not an atomic update and therefore not safe in the event of a power failure whilst the EEPROM was being updated.

For a small percentage of Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3s, booting problems have been reported. We have traced these back to the method used to create the FAT32 partition; we believe the problem is due to a difference in timing between the BCM2835/6/7 and the newer eMMC devices. The following method of creating the partition is a reliable solution in our hands.

BCM283x has three banks of General-Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins: 28 pins on Bank 0, 18 pins on Bank 1, and 8 pins on Bank 2, making 54 pins in total. These pins can be used as true GPIO pins, i.e. software can set them as inputs or outputs, read and/or set state, and use them as interrupts. They also can be set to 'alternate functions' such as I2C, SPI, I2S, UART, SD card, and others.

On a Compute Module, both Bank 0 and Bank 1 are free to use. Bank 2 is used for eMMC and HDMI hot plug detect and ACT LED / USB boot control.

It is useful on a running system to look at the state of each of the GPIO pins (what function they are set to, and the voltage level at the pin) so that you can see if the system is set up as expected. This is particularly helpful if you want to see if a Device Tree is working as expected, or to get a look at the pin states during hardware debug.

Raspberry Pi provides the raspi-gpio package which is a tool for hacking and debugging GPIO

To install raspi-gpio:

If apt can’t find the raspi-gpio package, you will need to do an update first:

To get help on raspi-gpio, run it with the help argument:

For example, to see the current function and level of all GPIO pins use:

BCM283x devices consist of a VideoCore GPU and ARM CPU cores. The GPU is in fact a system consisting of a DSP processor and hardware accelerators for imaging, video encode and decode, 3D graphics, and image compositing.

In BCM283x devices, it is the DSP core in the GPU that boots first. It is responsible for general setup and housekeeping before booting up the main ARM processor(s).

The BCM283x devices as used on Raspberry Pi and Compute Module boards have a three-stage boot process:

Device Tree is a special way of encoding all the information about the hardware attached to a system (and consequently required drivers).

On a Raspberry Pi or Compute Module there are several files in the first FAT partition of the SD/eMMC that are binary 'Device Tree' files. These binary files (usually with extension .dtb) are compiled from human-readable text descriptions (usually files with extension .dts) by the Device Tree compiler.

On a standard Raspberry Pi OS image in the first (FAT) partition you will find two different types of device tree files, one is used by the GPU only and the rest are standard ARM device tree files for each of the BCM283x based Raspberry Pi products:

During boot, the user can specify a specific ARM device tree to use via the device_tree parameter in config.txt, for example adding the line device_tree=mydt.dtb to config.txt where mydt.dtb is the dtb file to load instead of one of the standard ARM dtb files. While a user can create a full device tree for their Compute Module product, the recommended way to add hardware is to use overlays (see next section).

In addition to loading an ARM dtb, start.elf supports loading additional Device Tree 'overlays' via the dtoverlay parameter in config.txt, for example adding as many dtoverlay=myoverlay lines as required as overlays to config.txt, noting that overlays live in /overlays and are suffixed -overlay.dtb e.g. /overlays/myoverlay-overlay.dtb. Overlays are merged with the base dtb file before the data is passed to the Linux kernel when it starts.

Overlays are used to add data to the base dtb that (nominally) describes non-board-specific hardware. This includes GPIO pins used and their function, as well as the device(s) attached, so that the correct drivers can be loaded. The convention is that on a Raspberry Pi, all hardware attached to the Bank0 GPIOs (the GPIO header) should be described using an overlay. On a Compute Module all hardware attached to the Bank0 and Bank1 GPIOs should be described in an overlay file. You don’t have to follow these conventions: you can roll all the information into one single dtb file, as previously described, replacing bcm2708-rpi-cm.dtb. However, following the conventions means that you can use a 'standard' Raspberry Pi OS release, with its standard base dtb and all the product-specific information contained in a separate overlay. Occasionally the base dtb might change - usually in a way that will not break overlays - which is why using an overlay is suggested.

When start.elf runs, it first reads something called dt-blob.bin. This is a special form of Device Tree blob which tells the GPU how to (initially) set up the GPIO pin states, and also any information about GPIOs/peripherals that are controlled (owned) by the GPU, rather than being used via Linux on the ARM. For example, the Raspberry Pi Camera peripheral is managed by the GPU, and the GPU needs exclusive access to an I2C interface to talk to it, as well as a couple of control pins. I2C0 on most Raspberry Pi Boards and Compute Modules is nominally reserved for exclusive GPU use. The information on which GPIO pins the GPU should use for I2C0, and to control the camera functions, comes from dt-blob.bin.

minimal-cm-dt-blob.dts is an example .dts device tree file that sets up the HDMI hot plug detect and ACT LED and sets all other GPIOs to be inputs with default pulls.

To compile the minimal-cm-dt-blob.dts to dt-blob.bin use the Device Tree Compiler dtc:

After start.elf has read dt-blob.bin and set up the initial pin states and clocks, it reads config.txt which contains many other options for system setup.

After reading config.txt another device tree file specific to the board the hardware is running on is read: this is bcm2708-rpi-cm.dtb for a Compute Module 1, or bcm2710-rpi-cm.dtb for Compute Module 3. This file is a standard ARM Linux device tree file, which details how hardware is attached to the processor: what peripheral devices exist in the SoC and where, which GPIOs are used, what functions those GPIOs have, and what physical devices are connected. This file will set up the GPIOs appropriately, overwriting the pin state set up in dt-blob.bin if it is different. It will also try to load driver(s) for the specific device(s).

Although the bcm2708-rpi-cm.dtb file can be used to load all attached devices, the recommendation for Compute Module users is to leave this file alone. Instead, use the one supplied in the standard Raspberry Pi OS software image, and add devices using a custom 'overlay' file as previously described. The bcm2708-rpi-cm.dtb file contains (disabled) entries for the various peripherals (I2C, SPI, I2S etc.) and no GPIO pin definitions, apart from the eMMC/SD Card peripheral which has GPIO defs and is enabled, because it is always on the same pins. The idea is that the separate overlay file will enable the required interfaces, describe the pins used, and also describe the required drivers. The start.elf firmware will read and merge the bcm2708-rpi-cm.dtb with the overlay data before giving the merged device tree to the Linux kernel as it boots up.

The Raspberry Pi OS image provides compiled dtb files, but where are the source dts files? They live in the Raspberry Pi Linux kernel branch, on GitHub. Look in the arch/arm/boot/dts folder.

Some default overlay dts files live in arch/arm/boot/dts/overlays. Corresponding overlays for standard hardware that can be attached to a Raspberry Pi in the Raspberry Pi OS image are on the FAT partition in the /overlays directory. Note that these assume certain pins on BANK0, as they are for use on a Raspberry Pi. In general, use the source of these standard overlays as a guide to creating your own, unless you are using the same GPIO pins as you would be using if the hardware was plugged into the GPIO header of a Raspberry Pi.

Compiling these dts files to dtb files requires an up-to-date version of the Device Tree compiler dtc. The way to install an appropriate version on Raspberry Pi is to run:

If you are building your own kernel then the build host also gets a version in scripts/dtc. You can arrange for your overlays to be built automatically by adding them to Makefile in arch/arm/boot/dts/overlays, and using the 'dtbs' make target.

When the Linux kernel is booted on the ARM core(s), the GPU provides it with a fully assembled device tree, assembled from the base dts and any overlays. This full tree is available via the Linux proc interface in /proc/device-tree, where nodes become directories and properties become files.

You can use dtc to write this out as a human readable dts file for debugging. You can see the fully assembled device tree, which is often very useful:

As previously explained in the GPIO section, it is also very useful to use raspi-gpio to look at the setup of the GPIO pins to check that they are as you expect:

If something seems to be going awry, useful information can also be found by dumping the GPU log messages:

You can include more diagnostics in the output by adding dtdebug=1 to config.txt.

For these simple examples I used a CMIO board with peripherals attached via jumper wires.

For each of the examples we assume a CM1+CMIO or CM3+CMIO3 board with a clean install of the latest Raspberry Pi OS Lite version on the Compute Module.

The examples here require internet connectivity, so a USB hub plus keyboard plus wireless LAN or Ethernet dongle plugged into the CMIO USB port is recommended.

Please post any issues, bugs or questions on the Raspberry Pi Device Tree subforum.

In this simple example we wire an NXP PCF8523 real time clock (RTC) to the CMIO board BANK1 GPIO pins: 3V3, GND, I2C1_SDA on GPIO44 and I2C1_SCL on GPIO45.

Download minimal-cm-dt-blob.dts and copy it to the SD card FAT partition, located in /boot when the Compute Module has booted.

Edit minimal-cm-dt-blob.dts and change the pin states of GPIO44 and 45 to be I2C1 with pull-ups:

Change lines:

to:

Compile dt-blob.bin:

Grab example1-overlay.dts and put it in /boot then compile it:

Edit /boot/config.txt and add the line:

Now save and reboot.

Once rebooted, you should see an rtc0 entry in /dev. Running:

will return with the hardware clock time, and not an error.

In this example we use one of the already available overlays in /boot/overlays to add an ENC28J60 SPI Ethernet controller to BANK0. The Ethernet controller is connected to SPI pins CE0, MISO, MOSI and SCLK (GPIO8-11 respectively), as well as GPIO25 for a falling edge interrupt, and of course GND and 3V3.

In this example we won’t change dt-blob.bin, although of course you can if you wish. We should see that Linux Device Tree correctly sets up the pins.

Edit /boot/config.txt and add the line:

Now save and reboot.

Once rebooted you should see, as before, an rtc0 entry in /dev. Running:

will return with the hardware clock time, and not an error.

You should also have Ethernet connectivity:

should work.

finally running:

should show that GPIO8-11 have changed to ALT0 (SPI) functions.

The camera software is under constant development. Please ensure your system is up to date prior to using these instructions.

When using the Compute Module to drive cameras, it is NOT necessary to incorporate the crypto chip used on the Raspberry Pi—​designed camera boards when attaching the OM5647, IMX219 or HQ Camera Modules directly to the Compute Module carrier board. The Raspberry Pi firmware will automatically detect the Compute Module and allow communications with the Camera Module to proceed without the crypto chip being present.

To connect a single camera:

To connect two cameras, follow the steps as for a single camera and then also:

The Compute Module IO board has a 22-way 0.5mm FFC for each camera port, with CAM0 being a two-lane interface and CAM1 being the full four-lane interface. The standard Raspberry Pi uses a 15-way 1mm FFC cable, so you will need either an adapter (part# RPI-CAMERA) or a Raspberry Pi Zero camera cable.

The CMIO board for Compute Modules 1 & 3 differ slightly in approach to that for Compute Module 4. They will be considered separately.

Connecting to DISP1

Connecting to DISP0

There is no additional configuration required to enable the touchscreen. The touch interface should work out of the box once the screen is successfully detected.

If you wish to disable the touchscreen element and only use the display side, you can add the command disable_touchscreen=1 to /boot/config.txt to do so.

To make the firmware to ignore the display even if connected, then add ignore_lcd=1 to /boot/config.txt.

The firmware looks at the dt-blob.bin file for the relevant configuration to use for the screen. It looks at the pin_number@ defines for

The I2C port, SDA and SCL pin numbers are self explanatory. DISPLAY_DSI_PORT selects between DSI1 (the default) and DSI0.

Once all the required changes have been made to the dts file, it needs to be compiled and placed on the boot partition of the device.

Instructions for doing this can be found on the Pin Configuration page.