NVIDIA introduced the Jetson Xavier NX module that helps train and deploy AI on edge devices like robots and drones, for example. It has a form factor smaller than a credit card, delivers up to 21 TOPS (Tera Operations per Second) for running AI workloads, and consumes as little as 10 watts of power.

The Jetson Xavier NX module will be available in March for $399. Developers can begin application development today using the Jetson AGX Xavier Developer Kit with a software patch to emulate Jetson Xavier NX. NVIDIA said it is designed for small commercial robots, drones, intelligent high-resolution sensors for factory logistics and production lines, optical inspection, network video recorders, portable medical devices and other industrial IoT systems.

“AI has become the enabling technology for modern robotics and embedded devices that will transform industries,” said Deepu Talla, vice president and general manager of Edge Computing at NVIDIA. Talla delivered the opening keynote at the Robotics Summit 2019, which is produced by The Robot Report. “Many of these devices, based on small form factors and lower power, were constrained from adding more AI features. Jetson Xavier NX lets our customers and partners dramatically increase AI capabilities without increasing the size or power consumption of the device.”

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Jetson Xavier NX delivers up to 14 TOPS (at 10W) or 21 TOPS (at 15W), running multiple neural networks in parallel and processing data from multiple high-resolution sensors simultaneously in a Nano form factor (70x45mm). For companies already building embedded machines, Jetson Xavier NX runs on the same CUDA-X AITM software architecture as all Jetson offerings.

NVIDIA highlighted the following specs:

• GPU: NVIDIA Volta with 384 NVIDIA CUDA cores and 48 Tensor Cores, plus 2x NVDLA
• CPU: 6-core Carmel Arm 64-bit CPU, 6MB L2 + 4MB L3
• Video: 2x 4K30 Encode and 2x 4K60 Decode
• Camera: Up to six CSI cameras (36 via virtual channels); 12 lanes (3×4 or 6×2) MIPI CSI-2
• Memory: 8GB 128-bit LPDDR4x; 51.2GB/second
• Connectivity: Gigabit Ethernet
• OS Support: Ubuntu-based Linux
• Module Size: 70x45mm

Jetson Xavier NX is supported by NVIDIA JetPack software development kit, which is an AI software stack that can run complex AI networks, accelerated libraries for deep learning as well as computer vision, computer graphics, multimedia and more.

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“NVIDIA’s embedded Jetson products have been accelerating the research, development and deployment of embedded AI solutions on Lockheed Martin’s platforms,” said Lee Ritholtz, director and chief architect of Applied Artificial Intelligence at Lockheed Martin. “With Jetson Xavier NX’s exceptional performance, small form factor and low power, we will be able to do more processing in real time at the edge than ever before.”

Jetson Xavier NX is the latest addition to the Jetson family, which includes Jetson Nano, the Jetson AGX Xavier series and the Jetson TX2 series.