BeagleBoard.org® Launches BeagleBone® AI, Offering a Fast Track to Getting Started with Artificial Intelligence at the Edge

Press Releases

Sep 19, 2019

ROCHESTER, Mich., Sept. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The BeagleBoard.org® Foundation today announces general availability of the newest, fastest, most powerful BeagleBoard.org® BeagleBone® low cost development board yet, and it’s driving a whole new AI revolution. 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 is your fast track to embedded artificial intelligence at the edge. The fastest and most flexible BeagleBone yet builds on a decade of success in open hardware single board Linux computers built to educate and help you automate your home, office, lab or manufacturing floor.

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. Machine learning is supported by an optimized TI Deep Learning (TIDL) software framework and pre-installed software tools. Downloading and running the latest examples of edge inference algorithms and applications is only a few clicks away.

“This board is the answer to our community’s request to see the next major advancement in the BeagleBone® family,” says Jason Kridner, co-founder of the BeagleBoard.org® Foundation. “Its feature set is jam packed and offers capabilities unparalleled by any other single board computer, open hardware or not.”

BeagleBone® AI has a feature set that includes:

BeagleBone® Black mechanical and header compatibility

Works with existing BeagleBoard.org® BeagleBone® cape add-on boards and many available third-party cape add-on boards and enclosures

1GB RAM and 16GB on-board eMMC flash with a high-speed interface
USB Type-C for power and superspeed dual-role controller; and USB Type-A host
Gigabit Ethernet, 2.4/5GHz WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.2/BLE
microHDMI video and audio output
Zero-download out-of-box software experience
TI Sitara™ AM5729 processor with:

Dual 1.5GHz Arm® Cortex®-A15 microprocessor subsystem
2 C66x Floating-Point VLIW DSPs
4 Embedded Vision Engines (EVEs) supported by the TIDL software framework library for machine learning
2x Dual-Core Programmable Real-Time Unit (PRU) subsystems (4 PRUs total) for ultra-low latency control and software generated peripherals
2x Dual Arm® Cortex®-M4 co-processors for real-time control and subsystem management
IVA-HD subsystem with support for 4K at 15fps H.264 encode/decode and other codecs at 1080p60
Vivante® GC320 2D graphics accelerator
Dual-Core PowerVR® SGX544™ 3D GPU

“We believe this board will excel in everyday automation in industrial, commercial and home applications,” stated Christine Long, Executive Director of the BeagleBoard.org® Foundation. “And at an extremely competitive price point we’ve made this board available to everyone. It’s an industry game changer.”

BeagleBone® AI is available to buy as a standalone board, heat sink and antenna included, from BeagleBoard.org’s® key distribution partners. Visit http://beaglebone.ai.

For information about BeagleBoard.org® Foundation, contact Christine Long, Executive Director, at christi@beagleboard.org

BeagleBoard.org® and BeagleBone® are registered trademarks of the BeagleBoard.org® Foundation, a 501c3 US-based non-profit corporation

Sitara is a trademark of Texas Instruments

BeagleBoard.org Foundation founded in 2008 focused on growth in education, embedded devices, robotics, and industrial computing