The makers of Raspberry Pi have today announced a new product,

the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, aimed specifically at business and industrial users.

As Raspberry Pi founder Eben Uptontold the audience at the Wired 2013 event last autumn, the Pi was always intended to be an educational device. But the tiny computers have ended up all over the world, being used for all sorts of projects. It's not surprising, then, that the Foundation has launched a module that can be embedded into systems and commercial products. "We think there needs to be a better way to allow people to get their hands on this great technology in a more flexible form factor, but still keep things at a sensible price," writes Raspberry Pi's director of hardware, James Adams, in a blog post. "Like proud parents, we want to free the core technology of the Raspberry Pi to go forth and become an integral part of new and exciting products and devices."

As you might imagine then, the new module contains the core Raspberry Pi components, which include a BCM2835 processor and 512MB of RAM. Connected directly to the processor on the board -- which at 68x30mm is less than half the size of the credit card-sized Raspberry Pi -- is a 4GB eMMC Flash device.

The idea of the module is that users have far more flexibility in how they take advantage of the processor, with more interface and input/output options than available on the standard Pi computer. This will make it easier to incorporate Raspberry Pi into a custom system.

It's primarily intended for those who are attempting to create their own printed circuit boards, but the Foundation is also releasing a Compute Module IO Board, which will help designers skip a couple of steps. The Compute Module plugs straight into the simple open-source board. The board will allow you to power the module, program its Flash Memory, access processor interfaces and provides HDMI and USB connectors. "This board provides both a starting template for those who want to design with the Compute Module, and a quick way to start experimenting with the hardware and building and testing a system before going to the expense of fabricating a custom board," writes Adams.

The Compute Module and IO Board will be available together as part of a dedicated development kit some time in June. Eventually, the Module will be available to buy separately too -- either for $30 (£18) in batches of 100, or individually for a slightly higher cost. All profits will be fed straight back into the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which stays true to its original mission: educating children about computing.

This article was originally published by WIRED UK