Banana Pi Picks Renesas' RZ/V2N for Its Latest Edge AI System-on-Module, the BPI-AI2N
SODIMM form factor modules comes with a carrier board designed to break out all the most important features for development and testing.
Embedded and hobbyist computing specialist Banana Pi has announced a new system-on-module and compatible carrier board, designed for edge artificial intelligence (AI) and built around Renesas' RZ/V2N: the BPI-AI2N.
"[The] Banana Pi BPI-AI2N system-on-module (SoM) and BPI-AI2N carrier board are open-source hardware solutions designed to leverage the advanced capabilities of the [Renesas] RZ/V2N Vision AI MPU [Microprocessor Unit]," the company says of its latest creation. "Designed with a flexible, community-driven ecosystem, the BPI-AI2N platform empowers developers to accelerate innovation and streamline application development."
While most know the company for its family of single-board computers, Banana Pi's new BPI-AI2N, brought to our attention by Linux Gizmos, opts for a system-on-module format that splits the hardware into a SODIMM form-factor module and a carrier board to break out its various features. On the module is a Renesas RZ/V2N, featuring four Arm Cortex-A55 cores running at up to 1.8GHz, a Cortex-M33 core running at up to 200MHz for real-time workloads, a Mali-G31 graphics processor, Mali-C55 image signal processor, and a neural coprocessor delivering a claimed 15 tera-operations per second (TOPS) of compute for sparse minimum-precision workloads.
To this, Banana Pi has added 8GB of LPDDR4X memory, 32GB of on-board eMMC storage, and 64MB of quad-SPI flash. There are two gigabit Ethernet connections, USB 3.2 Gen. 2, USB 2.0, one MIPI Display Serial Interface (DSI) and two Camera Serial Interface 2 (CSI-2) inputs, two lanes of PCI Express Gen. 3, and various low-speed buses.
Exactly what module features are exposed depends on the carrier board, of course, with Banana Pi's own design offering two USB 3.0 ports, two gigabit Ethernet ports, a USB Type-C port for Power Delivery (PD) input and On-The-Go plus a separate Type-C port as a debug console, the MIPI DSI and two MIPI CSI connectors, microSD Card and M-key M.2 storage expansion, a real-time clock, USB-connected Wi-Fi module, and a 40-pin general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header. The carrier also includes two additional USB ports on the underside, accessible only when using a Renesas RZ/V2H module rather than the RZ/V2N variant.
Banana Pi has confirmed it will launch the module and carrier via Alibaba in the near future, but at the time of writing had not announced pricing nor precise availability; more information is available on the Banana Pi documentation site.