Tachyon is a business card-sized SBC based on Qualcomm QCM6490 Arm AI SoC with 5G and WiFi 6 connectivity (Crowdfunding)

Particle Tachyon is a credit card-sized SBC for AIoT projects powered by a Qualcomm QCM6490 octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 SoC with 12 TOPS of AI performance, 4GB RAM, 64GB UFS storage, and support for 5G cellular and WiFi 6 connectivity.

The Tachyon integrates MIPI DSI and CSI display/camera interfaces, two USB-C ports including one with DisplayPort Alt mode, and also leverages some Raspberry Pi 5’s hardware features with a 40-pin GPIO header for HAT expansion boards and the 20-pin PCIe FFC for PCIe add-ons.

Tachyon specifications:

• SoC – Qualcomm QCM6490
  • CPU – Octa-core Kryo 670 with 1x Gold Plus core (Cortex-A78) @ 2.7 GHz, 3x Gold cores (Cortex-A78) @ 2.4 GHz, 4x Silver cores (Cortex-A55) @ up to 1.9 GHz
  • GPU – Adreno 643L GPU @ 812 MHz with support for Open GL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, Vulkan 1.x, DX FL 12
  • DSP – Hexagon DSP with dual HVX and 4K HMX
  • VPU – Adreno 633 VPU up to 4K60 decode for H.264/H.265/VP9, Up to 4K30 encode for H.264/H.265; Support for HDR10 and HDR10+ playback
  • AI – 6th gen Qualcomm AI Engine that combines Compute Hexagon DSP with dual Hexagon Vector, eXtensions (HVX), Hexagon Co-processor (Hexagon CP) 2.0 and Hexagon Tensor accelerator for up to 12 TOPS of AI performance
• System Memory – 4GB RAM
• Storage –  64GB UFS storage
• Display Interfaces
  • 1x DisplayPort via USB-C
  • 4-lane MIPI DSI connector
• Camera Interface – 2x 4-lane MIPI CSI connector supporting 20 pre-integrated camera sensors
• Wireless
  • 5G Sub-6GHz cellular connectivity with on-device antennas
  • WiFi 6E (802.11ax) with on-device antennas
  • GNSS – GPS, GLONASS, NavIC, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, and SBAS
• USB – 2x USB 3.1 Type-C ports with USB PD, one with DisplayPort Alt mode
• Expansion
  • 20-pin PCIe connector compatible with Raspberry Pi 5’s PCIe FFC connector
  • 40-pin GPIO header compatible with Raspberry Pi HAT expansion boards
• Power Supply
  • USB PD via USB-C port
  • Support for Lithium Ion battery; integrated battery charging circuit
• Dimensions – Business card dimensions (about 86x 55mm)

The Tachyon SBC runs Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop operating system by default, but a headless version of Ubuntu 24.04 is also available, and so is the Yocto Project for advanced users who need to customize the OS. As for their other products, Particle provides a complete edge-to-cloud infrastructure to get started quickly and easily for the board. It includes device management, OTA software updates, connectivity management, and data automation.

First unveiled in 2021, the Qualcomm QCS6490/QSM6490 5G cellular and WiFi 6E octa-core Arm Cortex-A78/A55 SoC with 12 TOPS of AI performance was launched in the Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Platform for IoT and Robotics applications earlier this year and also happens to have been selected for the Fairphone 5 smartphone for its long term support. The Tachyon may eventually benefit from those, as the QCS9460/QCM9460 SoC runs mainline Linux, and supports Android 13, and Windows 11.

Particle has been making IoT products and tools for over ten years starting with the Spark Core WiFi module in 2013, followed by the Electron cellular module in 2015, and recent products include the Particle’s M-series multi-radio devices with WiFi, cellular, NTN satellite, and LoRaWAN connectivity, as well as the Photon 2 Realtek RTL8721DM dual-band WiFi and BLE IoT board.  The Tachyon is by far the most powerful IoT platform launched by the company.

Particle has just launched the Tachyon SBC on Kickstarter with a $10,000 funding goal that has already been easily surpassed in less than a day. Rewards start at $149 for the “Super early bird” perk, and latecomers would have to pay $199 or $219. Shipping adds $12 to the US and $20 to the rest of the world, and deliveries are scheduled to start in January or February 2025.

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