Geniatech Aims for the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W with Edge AI-Ready XPI-3566-ZERO Single-Board Computer
More memory, a faster processor, and a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) accelerator — plus that familiar 40-pin GPIO header.
Embedded electronics specialist Geniatech has launched a new single-board computer which aims to offer competition to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W: the XPI-3566-ZERO, with a more powerful processor and a dedicated accelerator for on-device machine learning and artificial intelligence workloads.
"Geniatech XPI-3566-ZERO is a tiny single-board computer that is similar to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W," the company writes of its latest launch. "With an more powerful quad-core 1.8GHz Arm Cortex-A55 processor, built-in eMMC flash, up to 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 4kp60 video support, Wi-Fi 5, and Bluetooth 5.0, it can run Linux Debian 11 or Raspbian OS emulator systems while supporting seamless migration from Raspberry Pi and its accessories."
The heart of the Geniatech XPI-3566-ZERO, brought to our attention by Linux Gizmos, is the Rockchip RK3566 system-on-chip, which includes those four 64-bit Arm Cortex-A55 cores running at up to 1.8GHz plus an Arm Mali-G52-2EE graphics processor with 4k video decode and 1080p encode support, an eight megapixel image signal processor (ISP), while the chip also includes a neural processor unit (NPU) accelerator for on-device machine learning offering a claimed one tera-operations per second (TOPS) at INT8 precision.
Like the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 2 W, the XPI-3566-ZERO is available with as little as 512MB of RAM — but 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB options are available, with an 8GB version promised for those who need more memory. There's a pair of USB Type-C ports, one as a USB On-The-Go (OTG) connector and the other for power, physical reset and power buttons, a MIPI Camera Serial Interface (CSI) connector, a mini-HDMI port, and an on-board eMMC with 8GB up to 128GB depending on model chosen. Interestingly, this is in place of a microSD slot — oddly absent from the design.
The promise of compatibility with Raspberry Pi accessories is driven by the 40-pin general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header at the top of the board, which is pin-for-pin compatible with the one found on the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and other models — allowing for Hardware Attached on Top (HAT) accessories to be used with the XPI-3566-ZERO.
Geniatech has listed the XPI-3566-ZERO for sale on its web store at $49 for 2GB of RAM and 8GB of eMMC storage or $69 for 4GB of RAM with 32GB of eMMC storage; pricing for the 512MB, 1GB, and 8GB models has not been provided, nor for upgrading the eMMC to the maximum 128GB.