BeagleBone AI-64 is a single board computer (SBC) powered by a Texas Instruments TDA4VM dual-core Cortex-A72 + hexa-core Cortex-R5F processor which also embeds an 8 TOPS AI accelerator, plus three DSP, as well as plenty of I/Os that makes it ideal for advanced AI industrial applications.
It follows the BeagleBone-AI SBC launched in 2019, but with much higher specs including a 64-bit Arm processor, 4GB RAM, three USB 3.0 ports, an M.2 E-Key socket with PCIe, USB and SDIO, plus the usual expansion headers that keep compatibility with existing BeagleBone cape add-on boards.
BeagleBone AI-64 specifications compared to BeagleBone-AI and BeagleBone Black boards:
| BeagleBone AI-64 | BeagleBone AI | BeagleBone Black (or BeagleBone Black Wireless) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SoC | Texas Instruments Jacinto TDA4VM 2x ARM Cortex-A72 | Texas Instruments Sitara AM5729 2x ARM Cortex-A15 | Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358 ARM Cortex-A8 |
| Max CPU clock | 2 GHz | 1.5 GHz | 1 GHz |
| Co-processors | C7x+MMA, 2xC66x, 12xPRU, 6xARM Cortex-R5, PowerVR Rogue 8XE GE8430, H.264 encode, H.264/H.265 decode | 2xC66x, 4xPRU, 4xARM Cortex-M4, 4xEVE, 2xPowerVR SGX544, IVA-HD | 2xPRU, ARM Cortex-M3, PowerVR SGX530 |
| Analog Pins | 7 (3.3V) | 7 (4-wire touchscreen capable) (3.3V) | 7 (4-wire touchscreen capable) (1.8V) |
| Digital Pins | 72 (including 7 analog pins which are digital capable) | 65 | |
| Memory | 4GB LPDDR4 | 1GB DDR3L | 512MB DDR3 |
| Storage | 16GB eMMC flash on-board microSD card slot | 4GB eMMC flash on-board microSD card slot |
|
| USB | USB 3.0 Type-C 5Gbps 2x USB 3.0 Type-A Host Ports | USB 3.0 Type-C 5Gbps USB 2.0 Type-A Host Port | USB 2.0 microUSB 480Mbps USB 2.0 Type-A Host Port |
| Network | 1 Gigabit Ethernet M.2 E-key w/ PCIe/USB/SDIO | 1 Gigabit Ethernet 2.4/5GHz WiFi Bluetooth 4.2/BLE | 10/100M Ethernet (Black-only) 2.4GHz WiFi (Wireless-only) Bluetooth 4.2/BLE (Wireless-only) |
| Video | miniDP MIPI DSI (w/ I2C) Cape add-on boards | micro HDMI Cape add-on boards |
|
| Audio | miniDP cape/USB add-ons MikroBUS Shuttle connector | micro HDMI cape/USB add-ons Bluetooth | micro HDMI cape/USB add-ons Bluetooth (Wireless-only) |
| Camera | 2x MIPI CSI (4 lane) | N/A |
|
| Supported Expansion Interfaces | 4x UART 16-bit LCD interface 2x I2C 2x SPI 8x PWM 4x Timer A/D (3.3V) CAN Pulse Capture Quadrature Encoder PRU GPIO PRU UART PRU Pulse Capture ... | 4x UART 16-bit LCD interface 2x I2C 2x SPI 8x PWM 4x Timer A/D (1.8V) CAN Pulse Capture Quadrature Encoder PRU GPIO PRU UART PRU Pulse Capture ... |
|
| On-board Sensors | On-die processor temperature sensors | N/A | |
Another notable change is that a mini DisplayPort has now replaced the micro HDMI port found in earlier boards. The TDA4VM SoC comes with many co-processors, so it will be interesting to see how well those are supported in the software. BeagleBoard.org provides Debian 11.3 with XFCE desktop environment for the BeagleBone AI-64 bootable either from the internal flash or a microSD card, and the instructions to get started are the same as for earlier BeagleBone or BeagleBoard boards.
The BeagleBone AI-64 is open-source hardware with the hardware design files, documentation, and some software, available in a dedicated git repository. You may also find additional information on the product page. The board is available through three distributors namely Digi-Key, Element14 (Asia), and OKdo for about $187.
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.
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