Walnut Pi CM2: a cheaper Raspberry Pi CM5 alternative with Allwinner T527

Walnut Pi has launched the CM2, a Raspberry Pi CM5-compatible compute module powered by an octa-core Allwinner T527 with 1–4GB LPDDR4, up to 16GB eMMC and an optional Wi-Fi 6 module. It sells on AliExpress for $28–$49, versus $97.50 for the equivalent Raspberry Pi CM5. Electrical compatibility with the CM5 is only partial.

• Allwinner T527: eight Cortex-A55 cores, Mali-G57 MC1 GPU and 2 TOPS NPU
• 1–4GB LPDDR4, up to 16GB eMMC, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0
• Priced $28–49 versus $97.50 for the Raspberry Pi CM5 2/16GB with wireless
• Partial CM5 compatibility: one HDMI, PCIe 2.1 shared with USB 3.0