Raspberry Pi, the compact and versatile computer beloved by tech enthusiasts and industry professionals alike, has now expanded its capabilities into the realm of artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, the company unveiled the AI Kit, a $70 add-on that enhances the Raspberry Pi 5 with a neural network inference accelerator for on-device inferencing.
The AI Kit leverages Raspberry Pi’s HAT+ extension card. “HAT” stands for “Hardware Attached on Top,” a playful acronym the company uses for its add-on boards. This particular extension card incorporates an M.2 slot, a widely used standard in PC component expansions. For the tech-savvy: this slot connects to the Raspberry Pi via a single-lane PCIe 3.0 interface, boasting a data transfer rate of 8Gbps.
Partnership with Hailo
To bring this AI Kit to life, it has teamed up with Hailo, an AI chip startup that recently secured $120 million in funding and aims to compete with Nvidia. Hailo focuses on creating chips for AI workloads on edge devices like vehicles, smart cameras, robots, and now, Raspberry Pi systems.
The AI Kit also features the Hailo-8L, an entry-level M.2 module that integrates seamlessly into the HAT+. Once installed, this setup enables the Raspberry Pi 5 to perform inferencing at 13 tera-operations per second (TOPS). While this might not rival an Nvidia GPU, it offers a cost-effective solution that works with Raspberry Pi’s standard 27W power supply.
On the software side, this latest OS automatically recognizes the Hailo module, allowing for immediate use by the OS and compatible applications. Additionally, Raspberry Pi has updated its camera application suite to support neural network inferencing. This enhancement enables functions such as object detection, semantic segmentation, instance segmentation, pose estimation, and facial landmarking.
The capabilities of the Hailo chip however extend beyond camera-related applications, opening a plethora of potential uses. The community is known for its innovation, and it will be exciting to see what new applications emerge from this AI extension kit.
The AI Kit is a powerful tool that broadens the Raspberry Pi 5’s functionality. With the community’s creativity, this kit could lead to novel and unexpected innovations. The future looks promising for AI applications on Raspberry Pi devices.
See also: Cloudera Acquires Verta To Enhance AI Capabilities In Data Platform
