ART-Pi II Pairs a 600 MHz Cortex-M7 With a 2.5D GPU

A GPU-Equipped MCU Finally Gets a Third-Party Board

ST launched the STM32H7R/S line in 2024, and in the two years since, almost nothing was built on it outside ST's own evaluation kits. That changed on July 21, 2026 with RT-Thread's ART-Pi II — a compact development board built around the STM32H7R7L8H, running a Cortex-M7 at 600 MHz with ST's NeoChrom 2.5D GPU on board. At roughly $44.64 on AliExpress, it is the first accessible way to actually use that silicon.

• STM32H7R7L8H Cortex-M7 at 600 MHz in TFBGA225, with NeoChrom 2.5D GPU
• 620 KB SRAM and only 64 KB internal flash, offset by 32 MB HyperRAM and 64 MB HyperFlash on board
• CYWL6208 module provides Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth 5.1 over SDIO/UART; two USB-C ports plus onboard ST-LINK/V2.1
• 40-pin Raspberry Pi-compatible GPIO header, 28-pin header, two Qwiic connectors, 6-pin SPI Pmod, 20-pin JTAG footprint, 40-pin RGB888 display FPC

Why Only 64 KB of Internal Flash?

That looks like a typo, and it is not. The STM32H7R/S design deliberately keeps internal flash tiny and expects external memory to carry the load — which is exactly what the ART-Pi II does with 32 MB of HyperRAM and 64 MB of HyperFlash soldered alongside. An optional 4GB eMMC and a microSD slot handle bulk storage. The trade is a slightly more involved boot and memory-mapping story in exchange for a much cheaper part with a GPU attached.

For graphics work that arrangement makes sense. A 2.5D GPU driving a 40-pin RGB888 panel needs framebuffer space more than it needs code space, and HyperRAM at these capacities is far cheaper per megabyte than on-die flash.

What Can You Build With It?

The connector list reads like a board designed by people who actually prototype. A Raspberry Pi-compatible 40-pin header means existing HATs and jumper wiring conventions carry straight over. Two Qwiic connectors cover I2C sensor modules without soldering. A 6-pin SPI Pmod adds the other common hobbyist expansion standard, and the 20-pin JTAG footprint is there when the onboard ST-LINK is not enough. Two USB-C ports — one OTG, one debug — mean you are not choosing between power and a debugger.

The software side is open: RT-Thread RTOS with an open-source board support package and example projects, plus Zephyr board documentation. That combination is what makes this more than a demo board. Open BSPs are how silicon that has been stuck in vendor-kit territory eventually reaches hobbyist projects.

Where It Sits in the Board Landscape

This is a different animal from the ultra-compact modules we have been covering lately, like the 11mm moddo Pinch, and from I/O-focused expansion boards such as the Olimex PICO-EVB. The ART-Pi II's niche is graphics-capable embedded work — instrument panels, kiosk UIs, handheld devices — where you want an MCU's determinism and boot time but still need a real display pipeline. At $45 with an open BSP, that niche just got a lot cheaper to enter. More boards in our mini computer coverage.

Sources: CNX Software — July 21, 2026; RT-Thread BSP repository — July 2026; Zephyr board documentation — July 2026.