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Welcome the BeagleY-AI !

cstanton

Beagleboard have brought out a new single-board computer aimed at artificial intelligence and it's in a form factor that's very different to its previous offerings:

Find out more here  BeagleY-AI 

beagley-ai 

The BeagleY-AI is available to pre-order from our online stores and I'm told we will have stock from June/July time, if not earlier. Meanwhile, the documentation is being fleshed out more than it is already, so we could consider this a 'soft launch'.

beagley-ai specs

Full schematics and details are on their github page, and all relevant links are on our product pages as I receive them.

This beagleboard intends to be an affordable Ai accelerated board compared to other offerings, and at about £57 the price is rather nice!

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  • in reply to colporteur

    I'm not convinced that would be constructive.

  • in reply to colporteur

    I'll try to answer this whilst remaining balanced and constructive...

    The BeagleBoard range embraces open source and does this very well. With this comes some huge positive, but (in my opinion) also potentially some negatives. The support the Beagle guys give their products is great. However, with it comes some expectation of experience with the low level details of Linux.

    You are absolutely provided with everything you need to get the best out of the hardware. OS builds are provided and regularly updated. However, if you hit a snag there's not the sort of beginner hand-holding you might get from the Raspberry Pi community for instance.

    The guys do a great job with fairly limited resources, but there may come a point where the answer is "well, there's the datasheet and the source code we used to build the Linux distro - off you go".

    I'll give you an example. I'm using the BeagleBone Blue - the robotics focused version with lots of servo connectors, etc. I was pleased to see that they are still providing Debian builds for older hardware and that Debian 12 is available. However, all the robotics stuff on the Blue has stopped working since Debian 11. I suspect there is something broken in the device tree as the PRU outputs just don't get to the pins they should. However fixing this falls to - well... me if I want it to work. The guys who could fix it are very busy with other stuff - new boards, etc. They're talented and helpful, but there's nobody who has the job of sorting out the dull stuff. This is a common situation with open source. Everything I need to fix it myself is provided. I just need the skills - or the time to learn those skills.

    In some ways, I feel it's a shame there's not so much beginner level support. The Beagle guys have produced some amazing products. They started before the Raspberry Pi and some of their hardware has some huge advantages (PRUs, etc.) over the more beginner-friendly boards. Sometime I feel that all it would take would be some interns / students employed to do the dull bits of documenting and testing and they would be way ahead.

    I hope that's helpful and balanced. It is of course just my opinion. I'll reiterate that they do a great job, and the fact that I've pre-ordered a BeagleY-AI shows I have confidence in the product. They'll definitely provide a nice stable OS build for it. However I feel you need to jump in with an expectation that you may need to get your hands dirty and not everything will be provided on a plate.

  • in reply to Fred27

    I would concur. This is nicely balanced and constructive. As you highlighted, one of the main problem areas is at beginner level, where most are not only unfamiliar with the hardware they are also unfamiliar with the operating system. So many beginners seek guidance from the hardware supplier rather than guidance from the creators of the Linux distribution. As a case in point. If one buys a computer/laptop we don't go to the OEM for help with a WindowsOS problem, for example. Unless of course it is an Apple Mac or a Raspberry Pi (for SBC's).