Hardware Documentation: Xerxes Pi
A high-density server motherboard in a 120 mm × 40 mm form factor designed for a 1U mini or full sized rack space and compatible with the Raspberry Pi Compute Module tailored for microserver or cluster use.
🧠 Core Compatibility
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Compute Modules | Raspberry Pi® CM4 and CM5, Radxa® CM5, OrangePi CM5, and other Compute Module compatible boards. (See A) |
| M.2 | The M.2 connector follows the PCIe specifications documented by Raspberry Pi in their CM5 datasheet. (See H opposite) |
| Ethernet | On-board Gigabit Ethernet PHY using the Broadcom BCM54210PE which is IEEE 1588-2008 compliant with MDI crossover, pair skew and pair polarity correction. (See G) |
| Fan Connector | Standard header pin fan connector. (See B) |
| USB | Power connector is USB-C with data connections handled by micro USB 2.0. (See E & F) |
| GPIO | VCC and Ground Pins, I2C pins for SDA and SCL, Fan Control header pins. (See C) |
| POE | Power over Ethernet header pins connect to an optional daughterboard. (See D) |
| Model Viewer |  |
📐 Form Factor & Physical
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 120mm × 40mm |
| Standard | Fractional Nano ITX |
| Mounting | Aligned for 1U chassis density; side-to-side airflow |
| Stackable Array-ready | Designed to slot into a blade or sled within a dense server chassis. Please see further down for a video describing the process for stacking a mini rack |
| Size compared to a Mobile Phone |  |
🔌 Connectivity
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Networking | 1× Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 |
| USB | 1 micro USB 2.0 port for data |
| Power | 1 USB-C port for power |
| PCIe | 1× PCIe Gen 2 x1 via onboard M.2 M-key slot |
| Display | via optional M.2 Oculink® board to optional PCIe Graphics board, including latest generation AMD GPU graphics cards |
💾 Storage Options
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Onboard eMMC | (from compute module) |
| M.2 slot | Key M for NVMe or SATA SSD |
| microSD card slot | Only for CM4 or CM5 Lite versions. microSD care is reserved for compute module cards which do not contrain storage memory |
| NVME and microSD |  |
🔋 Power
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Input Voltage | 5V DC via USB-C connector |
| Power Efficiency | Optimized low-power draw (~5–8W per module under load) power draw may vary depending on the M.2 care used |
🔧 Cluster Integration Features
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| I2C/GPIO headers | for board management, fan control, or daughter card modules |
| POE connector | compatibility for integrated POE daughterboard |
| LED indicators | Power, Activity, Network status |
| Rack Enclosures | Available in 19" and mini-rack sizes, open source and pre-printed with links to sliced models up soon for download here |
| Model Description Video |  |
🗃️ Use Case
Ideal for:
- Raspberry Pi clusters
- Edge computing nodes
- Kubernetes micro-clouds
- Home lab compute bricks in custom 1U enclosures