The Best SBCs with Integrated AI Hardware

Sept. 2, 2024

Discover how SBCs with integrated AI processing power are bringing new capabilities to many industries.

Orange Pi KunPeng Pro

The Orange Pi KunPeng Pro is an SBC based on Huawei's KunPeng SoC with a quad-core processor. It’s positioned as a Chinese alternative to AI-capable SBCs. The board comes equipped with a HiSilicon Hi1910 AI module that's capable of pushing up to 8 TOPS, making it useful for ML applications.

According to Orange Pi, the KunPeng Pro supports the openEuler operating system, which meets the needs of most AI algorithm prototype verification and reasoning application development. It can also provide more efficient computing power for various application scenarios, such as cloud computing, big data, distributed storage, high-performance computing, and more. In addition, it comes equipped with the openGauss database and a range of internet, productivity, and software development tools that are preinstalled.

Not much more is known about the board due to U.S. sanctions and the revoking of Intel and Qualcomm's licenses to supply semiconductor chips used in laptops and handsets to Huawei, which took immediate effect on May 7, 2024.

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What you'll learn:

Insight into single-board computers with integrated AI processing power.
Details on their performance capabilities.
Potential AI-related applications for these SBCs.

Over the last decade or so, single-board-computer (SBC) companies have leveraged the use of AI processing capabilities and integrated them into their designs. NPUs, VPUs, and TPUs are now commonplace among application-specific boards to drive everything from edge applications to industrial automation.

By embedding dedicated AI hardware with the versatility of SBCs, developers can utilize the power of machine learning, image recognition, language processing, and more within a small footprint without the need to access separate systems to offload the processing power. Here are some of the best SBCs with integrated AI hardware to hit the market:

About the Author

Cabe Atwell | Technology Editor, Electronic Design

Cabe is a Technology Editor for Electronic Design.

Engineer, Machinist, Maker, Writer. A graduate Electrical Engineer actively plying his expertise in the industry and at his company, Gunhead. When not designing/building, he creates a steady torrent of projects and content in the media world. Many of his projects and articles are online at element14 & SolidSmack, industry-focused work at EETimes & EDN, and offbeat articles at Make Magazine. Currently, you can find him hosting webinars and contributing to Electronic Design and Machine Design.

Cabe is an electrical engineer, design consultant and author with 25 years’ experience. His most recent book is “Essential 555 IC: Design, Configure, and Create Clever Circuits”

Cabe writes the Engineering on Friday blog on Electronic Design.