Jetson EX1 and SUB mini PCs put Xavier NX SoM into metal enclosures

Seeed Studio has just unveiled another Jetson Xavier NX mini PC with the Jetson EX1, plus some metal enclosures for the Jetson SUB mini PC announced last month with the official NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX developer kit, a 128GB SSD, and the Re_Computer case comprised of an aluminum frame and a plastic cover.

Jetson EX1 mini PC

The Jetson EX1 mini PC has a different design with a custom carrier board offering dual Gigabit Ethernet and support for four MIPI CSI cameras, a 256GB NVMe SSD, and an aluminum enclosure designed to help with cooling, albeit the computer is not completely fanless since a 5V fan is included in the design as well.

Jetson EX1 specifications:

NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX module
- CPU – 6-core NVIDIA Carmel ARMv8.2 64-bit processor with 6 MB L2 + 4 MB L3 cache
- GPU – NVIDIA Volta architecture with 384 NVIDIA CUDA cores and 48 Tensor cores
- Accelerators – 2x NVDLA Engines, 7-Way VLIW Vision Processor
- Video – Multiple 4Kp60 encode, multiple 8Kp30/4Kp30 decode
- System Memory – 8 GB 128-bit LPDDR4x 51.2GB/s
- Power modes – 10 W | 15 W | 20 W
- AI performance – Up to 14 TOPS @ 10 W, Up to 21 TOPS @ 20W
Storage – MicroSD slot, M.2 Key M socket fitted with a 256GB NVMe SSD
Video Output – HDMI 2.0 port up to 4Kp60
Camera – 4x MIPI CSI-2 interfaces
Connectivity – Dual Gigabit Ethernet
USB – 1x USB 3.0 Type-A port, 1x USB 2.0 Type-A port, 1x Micro USB OTG port
Expansion
- 20-pin header with GPIOs, UART, I2C accessible for the outside
- 2x internal 20-pin multifunctional connectors with 2x I2S, GPIO, I2C, 2x SPI, 3.3V, 1.8V, GND (See this PDF for details)
Misc – Power button and LED, Reset/Recovery pinhole, 5V PWM fan header
Power Supply – 12V DC via 4-pin connector
Dimensions – Mini PC: 134 x 135 x 46mm; carrier board: 128 x 105 mm
Temperature Range – -45°C + 85°C

I can’t remember having ever seen the Jetson EX1 carrier board before, nor ever heard about CESNS (company?) shown on the silkscreen. With the M.2 SSD installed, there’s no socket for WiFI & Bluetooth, so if needed, it would have to go through a USB dongle. The big differences are the dual Gigabit Ethernet ports and the four camera interfaces instead of just two on Jetson SUB.

There’s specific software for the mini PC, and you’d just be using the usual Ubuntu-based Jetpack and NVIDIA AI tools.

Seeed Studio’s Jetson EX1 is available for pre-order for $1,249 with shipping expected to start on December 10th. That’s for the full system preloaded with Ubuntu.

Jetson SUB Xavier NX mini PC gets full metal enclosures

The Re_Computer enclosure is great during development as it gives easy access to GPIO, but it may not be suitable for on the field deployments, so Seeed Studio is now offering two other metal enclosures.

They’ve kept the names easy to remember as the Re_Computer model is now Jetson SUB Mini PC-Blue, the model with a full aluminum enclosure and dual external antennas is called the Jetson SUB Mini PC-Silver, and comes with a Wifi module, and a 128GB M.2 key M SSD pre-installed on the Jetson Xavier NX developer kit.

The Jetson SUB Mini PC-Black is a completely different design that appears to be based on Leetop A205 carrier board with dual HDMI, Dual Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 3.0 ports, and a built-in OLED information display. Based on the fanless design with an aluminum case, the mini PC ships with a 256GB 2.5-inch SATA SSD, a wireless module, and two antennas. The carrier board actually offers 5x SATA and 6x MIPI CSI, but those may not be usable with the enclosure used.

You can find all three Jetson SUB Mini PC on Seeed Studio’s online store with the Blue and Silver versions both going for $799 and the Black variant for $999.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.