Libre Pc has launched a Raspberry Pi-shaped single-board pc dubbed the AML-S905D3-CC Solitude, which provides a low-cost entry level for accelerating edge and embedded synthetic intelligence (AI) initiatives due to an onboard neural community coprocessor.
The Solitude Board makes use of a board structure which will likely be instantly acquainted to anybody who has used a Raspberry Pi: there are 4 USB Kind-A ports, all of that are USB 3.0, subsequent to a single gigabit Ethernet port on one aspect, a 3.5mm analog audio-video jack subsequent to a full-size HDMI 2.0 port and a USB Kind-C energy connector which doubles as USB 2.0 information, connectors for MIPI Show Serial Interface and Digicam Serial Interface (DSI and CSI) equipment, and a 40-pin general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) header — with a second header for an non-obligatory Energy over Ethernet (PoE) accent, in keeping with a product itemizing dropped at our consideration by Linux Gizmos.
Libre Pc has launched a brand new SBC which goals to supply low-cost, power-efficient {hardware} for edge-AI work. (📷: Libre Pc)
It is not a slavish copy, by any means. There’s additionally 16MB of NOR flash reminiscence onboard, linked over an SPI bus, and an infra-red receiver at one finish, plus help for an non-obligatory eMMC storage module along with the microSD card slot. Extra importantly, although, it makes use of a unique system-on-chip — one tailor-made to energy-efficient edge-AI workloads: the Amlogic S905D3, offering 4 Arm Cortex-A55 processor cores operating at as much as 1.91GHz and an Arm Mali-G31 MP2 graphics processor with two execution models and 32 shading models.
Alongside these comparatively mainstream cores, although, is a neural processing unit delivering a claimed 1.2 tera-operations per second (TOPS) of INT8-precision compute. This, Libre Pc hopes, will make the board a go-to system for engaged on machine studying, pc imaginative and prescient, and synthetic intelligence on the edge — and with out breaking the financial institution or the ability envelope.
The board’s structure could be very a lot impressed by the Raspberry Pi, full with 40-pin GPIO header. (📷: Libre Pc)
The launch comes 4 months after the corporate unveiled the AML-A311D-CC Alta Cottonwood, a equally Raspberry Pi-shaped single board pc constructed across the Amlogic A311D system-on-chip and together with a neural community coprocessor delivering a claimed 5 tera-operations per second (TOPS) of INT8-precision compute for edge-AI workloads. The Alta is a significantly extra highly effective board, providing sooner Arm Cortex-A73 cores plus two low-power Cortex-A53 cores, double the GPU cores, and an NPU with 5 occasions the efficiency — however the Solitude has it crushed on worth.
The AML-S905D3-CC Solitude is now in the stores on the Libre Pc retailer at $45 for a mannequin with 4GB of LPPDR4 RAM; a 2GB mannequin can be listed, however was displaying as unavailable to order on the time of writing.