Thundercomm Unveils the RUBIK Pi, a Qualcomm-Powered Single-Board Computer for Edge AI
Launching in November, this chunky SOM-and-carrier combination stands as cellular-free competition to Particle's Tachyon.
Thundercomm, a joint venture between ThunderSoft and Qualcomm Technologies, has announced a single-board computer built atop Qualcomm's QCS6490 system-on-chip, targeting edge artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and computer vision (CV): the RUBIK Pi.
"RUBIK Pi is a lightweight development board that is not only easy to use and is low cost but also holds significant ESG [Environmental, Social, and Governance] value," claims Thundercomm's vice president Pier Zhang of the company's device. "By making AI application development accessible to beginners, it promotes AI education, enhances technological literacy, and fosters social equity."
"We're excited to see Thundercomm launch RUBIK Pi," adds Qualcomm's Manvinder Singh. "It's the first Pi product built on the Qualcomm SoC platform, supporting Qualcomm Linux and Android, Windows, and Ubuntu [Linux]. "It has a rich set of IO [Input/Output] interfaces and delivers unrivaled compute and AI performance to unleash developer creativity. With the support of Qualcomm Al Hub, developers will be able to quickly deploy optimized AI models on RUBIK Pi."
The heart of the board is the Qualcomm QCS6490 system-on-chip, packaged as a system-on-module by Thundercomm, designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) and which features a Kryo 670 processor with four Arm Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A55 cores, with only one Cortex-A78 core reaching the maximum 2.7GHz clock speed, an Adreno 643L graphics processor running at up to 821MHz, and a Hexagon machine learning accelerator capable of delivering up to 12 tera-operations per second (TOPS) of compute for on-device artificial intelligence. The board also includes 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB of on-board storage.
Connectors available on the board include an HDMI 1.4 port capable of 4k30, a USB Type-C connector with DisplayPort for 4k60, two MIPI Camera Serial Interface (CSI) four-lane ports, an analog audio jack, the aforementioned USB 3.1 Gen. 1 Type-C port, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and a single USB 2.0 Type-A host/device port, gigabit Ethernet, a micro-USB port for connection to a debug UART bus, an M.2 M-key slot for solid-state storage, and a Raspberry Pi-style 40-pin general-purpose input/output (GPIO) connector thatincludes one pulse-width modulation (PWM) capable pin, one I2S, two dedicated I2C, and three pins switchable between I2C, SPI, or UART buses. There's integrated Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2 radios, a real-time clock, PWM-controlled fan output, and a user-addressable RGB LED.
While both Thundercomm and Qualcomm position the device as "the first Pi product built on the Qualcomm SoC platform," though, it has technically been pipped to the post: back in August Internet of Things specialist Particle launched a crowdfunding campaign for the Tachyon, a more compact and Raspberry Pi-like single-board computer built around Qualcomm's QCM6490 — offering the same CPU, GPU, and AI performance as the QCS6490 in the RUBIK Pi but with the addition of 5G cellular connectivity.
Thundercomm has promised to open "preliminary orders" for the RUBIK Pi in early November, but has not yet announced pricing beyond Zhang's pledge that it will be "low cost;" the Particle Tachyon has a retail price of $199, to provide a point of comparison. More information is available on the official product page.