> The nodes interconnected with the onboard 1 Gbps switch. However, each node is limited with 100 Mbps USB speed.
Not only that but Compute Module 3+ are limited to 1GB RAM, is it really expected someone could run a realistic workload? How stable is the control plane node with such limited resources?
It seems like picking up 3 raspi4s (4GB RAM each) and powering via PoE would be a must better result.
edit-before-actually-posting (sorry I'm a bad person for typing a reply before clicking the link): Wait, they're selling these things? Ok, then I'm stumped. What would you do with 8 rpi's that you couldn't do with one?
Any idea how the specs compare?
These are interesting ideas, but until the compute modules start having more on board RAM, you'd be much better off working with a few RPi 4's. They will be faster (1Gbps ethernet, more RAM), and cheaper since you only need a gigabit switch to connect them together, not a custom carrier board.
If the compute modules start to get more powerful, then having to deal with only one power supply and ethernet uplink would be nice. It's a very appealing idea. But, you're going to almost always have a better experience with a bunch of standard RPis.
3D printed trays for rockmount fiber cassette blanks and set it in a network rack.
It's also pretty cool being able to turn the pis on or off by cycling the switch port from your network control plane (Unifi in my case)
You could even do it dynamically via the api for a "bare-metal autoscaling" type workflow.
You can get one large 5V PSU and go directly to the pins on the Pi. No need to bother with individual USB adaptors...