A few months ago, Google introduced its Coral development board and USB accelerator powered by their Edge TPU delivering up to 4 TOPS and optimized for Tensorflow Lite.
ASUS and Google have now partnered to bring more solutions powered by Coral Edge TPU namely ASUS Tinker Edge T board for makers and hobbyists, CR1S-CM-A SBC for industrial projects, and even a full computer fitted with a Google Edge TPU PCIe card.
ASUS Tinker Edge T
ASUS Tinker Edge T preliminary specifications:
- SoC – NXP i.MX 8M quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with Arm Cortex-M4F real-time core, GC7000 Lite 3D GPU
- ML accelerator – Google Edge TPU co-processor
- System Memory – 1GB LPDDR4 RAM
- Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash
- Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet port, Wi-Fi 2×2 MIMO (802.11b/g/n/ac 2.4/5GHz), and Bluetooth 4.1
- Video Output – MIPI DSI connector, and HDMI output
- Camera I/F – 2x MIPI CSI 2 interfaces for stereoscopic camera applications
- USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 1x USB-C port
- Expansion – 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header with GPIO, I2C, PWM, UART, SPI, I2S, etc…
- Misc – External power and reset buttons, and three programmable LEDs
- Dimensions – 85x56mm (Credit card form factor )
The board can be used to learn about machine learning, and for projects such as smart-home devices, cameras, game emulators and media servers.
ASUS CR1S-CM-A SBC
The industrial single board computer is based on the same design principle with an NXP i.MX 8M baseboard coupled with Google Coral Edge TPU system-on-module, but it does include some extra features like PoE via the Gigabit Ethernet port, a SATA interface, a terminal block for I/Os with isolation, and an M.2 expansion slot.
Target applications include AI-powered business intelligence, kiosk, signage and security solutions.
Asus PN60T mini PC with Coral Edge TPU mini PCIe card
Beside the two boards above, ASUS also showcase their PN60T mini PC at Computex 2019. The computer has a form factor similar to Intel NUC and will come with a choice of quad-core processors such as Core i7-8550 or Core i5-8250U, as well as double core CPUs including Core i3-8130U or Celeron 3867U coupled with up to 32GB RAM, as well as SATA M.2 and 2.5″ SSD storage.
But what differentiate PN60T from other mini PCs is that it will be fitted with a mini PCIe card equipped with Google Edge TPU. Shipping is expected for Q4 2019.
We would all like to know about availability or pricing, but ASUS tells us to “contact our local ASUS representative for further information”.
Info and photos from Heise (German). Thanks to tkaiser for the tip.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress
Is the NXP i.MX 8M any good for a media center running Linux? Are there any drivers available for video decoding?
NXP i.MX 8M does support 4K60 HDR video playback and output, and you can play video using gstreamer in Linux. I’ve never tried myself though since never got hold of i.MX 8M hardware.
For media center only, it’s probably not such a good option because of the cost though. ASUS Tinker Edge T is even less suitable because with Google TPU the total cost will be between $150 and $200.
I would expect a bit lower price since the coral usb accelerator costs $75 and there are also cheaper usb options in the market. Then Nanopi neo4 that has USB3.0 costs another $50 and is quite similar spec’ed, but it’s well suited for running inferences for models using a USB accelerator.
imx8 points to automotive thought.