This week we jump right into a descendant of one of the original open hardware maker pro development kits that has gotten a facelift for artificial intelligence applications – BeagleBone AI. The BeagleBone AI is a performance-packed platform is based on Texas Instruments' Sitara AM5729 SoC, which integrates so much heterogeneous compute power it's actually tucked away underneath a heatsink on the board. Dual TI C66x floating-point DSPs, four Embedded Vision Engines, a dual-core PowerVR 3D GPU, a Vivante 2D graphics accelerator, dual Arm Cortex-A15 cores, dual Arm Cortex-M4 cores, an H.264 video encode/decode subsystem, and two programmable real-time units (RTUs).Beyond just a long list of processing engines, all of that diverse compute makes the BeagleBone AI a perfect match for a wide range of neural networking applications. For instance, high-speed video interfaces on the board can be used to pipe in video streams through the encode/decode subsystem and pass them on to a CNN running on one of the DSPs or GPU. Meanwhile, code or control logic running on one of the Arm cores or PRUs could trigger an action.

It may share the familiar BeagleBone form factor, but the new BeagleBone AI isn't like the BeagleBone boards we've seen before. This isn't really a general purpose single-board computer (SBC) instead, as you can tell from the name, this board is intended for machine learning inferencing at speed.

Foundation today announces general availability of the newest, fastest, most powerful BeagleBoard.org Built on our proven open source Linux approach, BeagleBone AI fills the gap between small single board computers (SBCs) and more powerful industrial computers. Leveraging the Texas Instruments Sitara AM5729 processor, developers have access to powerful machine learning capabilities with the ease of the BeagleBone Black header and mechanical compatibility. BeagleBone AI makes it easy to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning can be used in everyday life. Through BeagleBone AI, developers can take advantage of the TI C66x digital-signal-processor (DSP) cores and embedded-vision-engine (EVE) cores on the Sitara AM5729 processor.

There are a lot of BeagleBones, from Blue, to White, Green, Black, and we think there's a purple one in there for some reason. The diversity of BeagleBones is due to the openness of the design, and is the biggest advantage over the'bone's main competitor, the Raspberry Pi. Now, there's a new BeagleBone, and this time the color is AI. The BeagleBoard foundation has just unveiled the BeagleBone AI, and it is going to be the most powerful BeagleBone ever developed. Unlike the BeagleBone Blue, Black, or the PocketBeagle, the BeagleBone AI uses the TI AM5729 processor, a dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 running at 1.5 GHz.

The foundation teased the new BeagleBone AI in a brief announcement detailing its main AI features, which include a Texas Instruments (TI) AM5729 system on chip (SoC), TI C66x digital-signal-processor (DSP) cores and embedded-vision-engine (EVE) cores. The board has the same form-factor as the popular and cheap BeagleBone Black but with much higher specifications. The BeagleBone AI "fills the gap between small SBCs and more powerful industrial computers", which can help automate industrial, commercial and home applications, according to the foundation. The AI-ready board comes with 1GB RAM and 16GB on-board eMMC flash with a high-speed interface, a USB Type-C port for power and a dual-role controller, and a USB Type-A host. With preinstalled software, the BeagleBone AI also saves buyers from having to download equipment to get the device up and running.

This is a board created for artificial intelligence projects, so as well as treating the new board to four programmable real-time units, the Foundation has also included four embedded vision-engines, a TI C66x digital signal processor, and has pre-installed machine learning tools.