Pineberry Pi Unveils New Raspberry Pi 5 HAT Add-Ons with AI Acceleration, 2.5-gig Ethernet, and More
If just one of the new boards isn't enough, the HatBRICK Commander lets you stack two on a single Raspberry Pi 5 too.
Raspberry Pi accessory maker Pineberry Pi has announced a new raft of Hardware Attached on Top (HAT) devices which make use of PCI Express connectivity available on the Raspberry Pi 5 — including dual-drive NVMe models, a 2.5-gigabit Ethernet adapter, and one designed for use with Google's Coral Edge TPU machine learning accelerator.
"Marching into March with a smorgasbord of fresh boards available for preorder! Dual NVMe, NVMe with Coral Edge TPU, NVMe with Ethernet and more," Pineberry Pi announced of its latest board designs, all built for use specifically with the Raspberry Pi 5 and its PCI Express connectivity. "We also have something that'll let you use your two other Pineberry Pi boards together. It is time to stack'em up with the HatBRICK! Commander."
The company's new boards are all part of the HatDrive family, which launched with an adapter designed to connect a Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) solid-state drive to the Raspberry Pi 5's PCI Express lane — and which beat Raspberry Pi's own NVMe HAT+, due to launch sometime this year, to market. The HatDrive Dual, to start with, builds on the existing design to offer support for a pair of 2230- or 2242-footprint NVMe drives on a single Raspberry Pi 5.
The HatDrive AI follows a similar layout, but the board's second M.2 slot isn't for an additional drive; it's designed instead to host a Google Cora Edge TPU accelerator board, providing both high-speed storage and improved performance for on-device machine learning and artificial intelligence workloads. The HatDrive NET 1G, next in the line, hosts a single 2230- or 2242-footprint NVMe drive while providing a gigabit Ethernet port — easily turning a Raspberry Pi 5 in to a gateway, firewall, or other dual-network appliance.
The HatNET, meanwhile, drops any support for NVMe storage in favor of using all available PCI Express bandwidth on a single 2.5-gigabit Ethernet port for high-speed connectivity. As with the HatDrive NET 1G, this port is in addition to the Raspberry Pi 5's built-in gigabit Ethernet port, allowing for connection to two networks simultaneously.
Finally, the HatBRICK Commander takes the single flat flexible circuit (FFC) connector on the Raspberry Pi 5 and splits it to two through an ASMedia PCI Express switch — allowing for two PCIe HATs to be connected to a single Raspberry Pi, albeit all sharing a single PCIe Gen. 2 lane's bandwidth between them.
The new boards are available to pre-order on the Pineberry Pi website now, with prices ranging from €34.99 for the HatBRICK Commander to €66.99 the HatDrive AI with bundled Coral Edge TPU accelerator (around $38 to $73). Shipping is expected to begin in the next two to four weeks, the company has confirmed.