Raspberry Pi Smart Display Module is on sale for $30

Raspberry Pi has finally put its Smart Display Module on sale. It was first announced back in January, and as of this week you can buy it from Approved Resellers for $30. Compute Module 5 is sold separately, so it is a bare adapter rather than a whole computer.

What it is: an adapter board for Compute Module 5 that slots into displays and projectors following Intel's Smart Display Module (SDM) specification. Power, video, audio, data and control all travel through the internal connector, which means no extra cable, power supply or bracket hanging off the back of a screen. It was developed together with Sharp Display Solutions Europe and handles 4K video playback.

There is also an on-board M.2 slot, which can take fast storage or an AI accelerator such as a Hailo module. The board is fanless and silent, aimed at signage that has to run 24/7: flight information displays, wayfinding, retail and corporate screens, or immersive exhibits when paired with an SDM projector.

One early tester, a small-business signage service called Media Looper, ran it on a Sharp display for three months. Its founder said it does everything their Raspberry Pi 5 setup does, without the cable, power supply or bracket a customer could knock loose, and that they would make it the default for any display with an SDM slot.

I like this kind of announcement because it shows how far the platform has moved from hobby boards toward tidy, embedded hardware. For anyone building a display project, a $30 module that disappears inside the screen is a neat option, though you still need to check that your display actually has an SDM slot.

Source: Raspberry Pi News