The Jetson Nano and Jetson Xavier NX from NVIDIA share a common 260-pin SO-DIMM connector (Fig. 1). They target compact, low-power applications that leverage artificial-intelligence/machine-learning (AI/ML) models.
The Jetson Nano has a quad-core Arm Cortex-A57 with a 128-core Maxwell GPU delivering 472 GFLOPS of performance, while the Xavier NX delivers 21 TOPS via a six-core, 64-bit NVIDIA Carmel ARM v8.2 and a Volta GPU with 384 cores and 48 Tensor cores. The former can run with as little as 5 W; its heftier sibling uses 10 to 15 W.
The modules are available separately, but they require a carrier board to make things work. Here we look at three complete solutions that can host either module. The specific feature sets can differ depending on the module used, so check the specs before ordering.
Diamond Systems’ JETBOX-Floyd is the quintessential embedded platform that comes installed with Linux (Fig. 2). It features dual Ethernet and dual HDMI ports. There are versions with a x4 PCIe M.2 socket capable of handling NVMe flash storage. There’s also an SD card slot. The system is DIN-rail-mountable and has dual SMA antenna cutouts. A miniPCIe socket can handle wireless options.
Axiomtek’s AIE100-903-FL is a fanless and wireless edge AI solution (Fig. 3). One of two Gigabit Ethernet ports supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) to handle a remote smart camera. It’s a great solution for smart-city applications where streaming video is processed at the edge instead of the cloud.
ADLINK’s DLAP-301-Nano sports an eight-port, PoE-enabled switch (Fig. 4), allowing the NVIDIA module to handle up to eight PoE IP cameras. A separate Gigabit Ethernet port is available for connecting to a LAN. The system has an HDMI display output as well as 8-bit digital inputs/outputs. The platform works well as a network video recorder (NVR) used in surveillance applications.
NVIDIA provides a tremendous amount of free, open-source software, starting with its CUDA platform that’s included as part of the NVIDIA JetPack bundle. JetPack is compatible with the entire Jetson family.