Open-hardware ARM64 server boards for small compute nodes, clusters and homelabs.
Status: M0 — concept and feasibility. No hardware prototype exists, no SoC is selected, and no crowdfunding campaign has been announced. Specifications below are targets, not promises.
Ploos Pi is a family of three independently designed single-board computers, each using a bare ARM SoC, directly attached RAM, power circuitry, networking and storage. No compute modules or third-party SoM carrier boards.
| Target | Nano | Compute | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Role | small always-on nodes | general compute/CI/render | high-end cluster workloads |
| CPU aspiration | 4 ARM64 cores | 8 ARM64 cores | 8–16 ARM64 cores |
| RAM aspiration | 2–4 GB | 8–16 GB | 16–32+ GB |
| Network aspiration | 1 GbE | 2.5 GbE | 10 GbE |
| Storage | eMMC | eMMC + NVMe | eMMC + NVMe |
| Remote management | mandatory | mandatory | mandatory |
These targets may change following component and manufacturing feasibility studies.
Headless, efficient, fleet-manageable, serviceable ARM nodes are better suited to small datacenters than desktop-oriented SBCs. Intended use cases include Armada orchestration, AmiCompute offload, AmiRender workers, continuous integration and general Linux services.
- Project charter
- Architecture and non-negotiables
- Product family requirements
- M0 roadmap and acceptance gates
- Engineering validation plan
- Crowdfunding readiness and integrity
- Risk register
- Decisions (ADR)
- Contributing
- Licensing
- Requirements and traceable acceptance criteria for all three products.
- Longlist and scoring template for purchasable, documentable bare ARM SoCs.
- Initial board-level design partition and common management/backplane interface specification.
- Prototype, bring-up, safety, thermal and production validation plans.
- Honest, evidence-driven crowdfunding gates, BOM cost model and risk register.
- Reviewable community governance and transparent milestone reporting.
M0 does not include a PCB, tested firmware, verified performance, certified product or retail price.
- KiCad source, BOM, assembly files and manufacturing instructions when validated.
- Debian-based ARM64 support prioritized; upstream support preferred.
- UART recovery, watchdog, per-node power control, measurable power/thermal limits.
- Avoid undocumented vendor dependencies where viable; document every unavoidable closed component.
- No publication of credentials, proprietary datasheets under NDA, or unlicensed vendor binaries.
- Publish test results, failures and design revisions—not only successes.
Maintained by Ploos AS. Public information is subject to change during development.