Geniatech AP880 and AP880 Mini are two Edge AI embedded computers powered by an NXP i.MX 8M Plus AI SoC and a 40 TOPS Kinara Ara-2 AI accelerator for industrial edge applications that may benefit from AI acceleration in applications such as optical inspection.
The AP880 is a single board computer design with the Ara-2 soldered on the board, while the AP880 has a modular design with a SMARC SoM, a carrier board, and an M.2 Kinara Ara-2 AI accelerator, likely Geniatech’s own AIM M2 M.2 module.
Geniateach AP880 and AP880 mini specifications:
- SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Plus
- CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.8GHz, Arm Cortex-M7 real-time core @ 800 MHz
- GPU – Vivante GC7000UL OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, OpenCL 1.2, Vulkan support
- AI accelerator – 2.3 TOPS NPU
- VPU
- Encoder up to 1080p60 H.264, H.265
- Decoder up to 1080p60 H.264, H.265
- AI Accelerator – 40 TOPS Kinara Ara-2 compatible with TensorFlow, PyTorch, and ONNX AI models
- Memory
- 1 to 8GB LPDDR4 (4GB default) for NXP SoC
- 16GB for Kinara Ara-2 AI accelerator
- Storage
- 32 eMMC 5.1 flash (8GB to 128GB optional)
- MicroSD card slot
- Display Interfaces
- HDMI output
- 30-pin LVDS connector + LVDS panel power switch
- MIPI DSI connector
- I2C touch screen connector
- 6-pin LCD backlight header
- Camera Interfaces
- AP880 – 2-lane MIPI CSI connector + 4-kane MIPI CSI connector
- AP880 Mini – 2x 4-lane MIPI CSI connectors
- Audio interfaces (AP880 only)
- 4-pin stereo speaker header
- 3.5 headphone seat
- 2-pin microphone header
- Networking
- 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports
- Dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0
- Optional 4G LTE or 5G cellular connectivity via M.2 or mPCIe socket plus Micro SIM card slot
- USB
- AP880 – 2x USB 2.0 + 2x USB 3.0 Type-A ports
- AP880 Mini – 1x USB 2.0 + 1x USB 3.0 Type-A ports
- USB Type-C port
- 2x USB 2.0 via 4-pin header
- Serial
- AP880
- 4-pin RS232 header
- 4-pin RS485 header
- 2x 4-pin CAN Bus headers
- AP880 Mini
- 2x RS232/RS485
- 1x CAN Bus
- 2x DI, 2xDO
- AP880
- Expansion
- AP880 only
- 60-pin B2B connector for AI module
- 30-pin B2B connector for AI module
- M.2 Key-B socket for 4G/5G
- M.2 Key-M socket for M.2 AI module (note: populated with Kinara Ara-2 on the AP880 Mini)
- Mini PCIe socket for 4G LTE
- 40-pin GPIO header
- AP880 only
- Debugging – Cortex-A53 Core Debug connector
- Misc
- RTC with backup battery
- 4-pin PWM fan header
- System boot mode switch
- System upgrade key
- Reset Key
- Power Supply – 12V/3A via DC Jack (AP880) or terminal block (AP880 Mini)
- Dimensions & Weight
- AP880 – 238 x 130 x 40mm | 1.3kg
- AP880 Mini – 172 x 123.7 x 43.5mm | 1.05kg
It’s quite clear from the photos that many of the ports are only available on the board or carrier board, but not exposed to the outside world (for example, serial interfaces). Geniatech provides a Linux BSP based on the Yocto Project, but apart from that, there aren’t many other details. The company’s website has a section about documentation and software, but nothing about the AP880 computers so far.
From the article about the Geniatech AIM M2 module, we know that Linux drivers are indeed available for the Kinara Ara-2, and the AI accelerator supports Stable Diffusion 1.4 at up to 7 seconds per image, Llama-7b with 12 output tokens/s, MobileNetV1 SSD at up to 974 IPS (1.02 ms latency), and ResNet50 with up to 2ms latency.
Neither models are listed on the Geniatech store, so we don’t have publicly available pricing information. More details may be found on the product pages for the AP880 and AP880 Mini Edge AI embedded systems.
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.
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