ASUS launches Tinker Edge R mini PC for Machine learning and AI applications

On May 5^th ASUS the multinational the Taiwan based giant of computer and phone hardware and Electronics Company has announced it all new single board mini computer dedicated for machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. They named it ASUS Tinker Edge R mini PC which is drived by Rockchip RK3399Pro NPU. “A machine-learning (ML) accelerator that speeds up processing efficiency, lowers power demands and makes it easier to build connected devices and intelligent applications” claims ASUS.

For connectivity the Tinker Edge R mini PC is comes with a wide range of hardware including a full-size HDMI port, USB Type-A, USB Type-C, Gigabit LAN and WiFi and Bluetooth, as well as a mini PCI Express Mini slot supporting a 4G/LTE extension card if required. Tinker Edge R also comes equipped with an onboard 16 GB eMMC and SD 3.0 interface.

“With its powerful and modern hex-core Rockchip RK3399Pro processor powered by Arm big.LITTLE A72+A53 technology, Tinker Edge R offers a powerful solution for graphics, machine vision, video, audio, voice and safety-critical applications. Tinker Edge R features 4 GB of dual-channel LPDDR4 system memory, the 4th generation of low-power DDR DRAM technology, offering faster speeds and even lower power consumption for improved system performance and efficiency. It also boasts 2 GB of standalone memory for the NPU, delivering faster speeds, improved stability and high efficiency for ML inference.

ASUS provides a robust API and SDK that enables users to deploy ML models to Tinker Edge R easily for applications such as image classification and object detection. It also supports model conversion from Caffe, TensorFlow, TensorFlow Lite, ONNX, Darknet and more.”

Detailed Specifications of the Tinker Edge R mini PC

– SoC RockchipRK3399Pro
– CPU Dual-core Arm® Cortex®-A72 @ 1.8 GHz + Quad-core Arm® Cortex®-A53 @ 1.4 GHz
– GPU Arm® Mali™-T860 MP4 GPU @ 800 MHz
– NN Processor Rockchip NPU
– Memory Dual-CH LPDDR4 4GB (SYSTEM) + LPDDR3 2GB (NPU)
– Storage 16GB eMMC 1 x Micro SD (TF) card slot (push & pull)
– Display 1 x HDMI with CEC hardware ready 1 x Type-C (DP) 1 x 22-pin MIPI DSI (4 lane)
– USB 3 xUSB3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports 1 x USB3.2 Gen1 Type-C OTG port
– Camera interface 1 x 22-pin MIPI CSI-2 (4 lane) 1 x 22-pin MIPI CSI-2/DSI (4 lane)
– Connectivity 1 x RTL8211F-CGGbELAN 1 x 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac & Bluetooth 5.0(2T2R)
– Expansions 1 x Mini PCIe slot (Full-Length, nano-SIM socket, for 4G/LTE)
– Audio 1 x 3.5mm audio jack (with Mic & plug-in detection)
Internal I/O 1 x 40-pin header includes:
– up to 2 x SPI bus
– up to 2 x I2C bus
– up to 2 x UART
– up to 3 x PWM
– up to 1 x S/PDIF TX
– 2 x 5V power pins
– 2 x 3.3V power pins
– 8 x ground pins
1 x 2-pin Recovery header
1 x 2-pin Power-on header
1 x 2-pin Reset header
1 x 2-pin DC Fan header
1 x 2-pin RTC Battery header
1 x 2-pin NPU UART header
– Non-operation temperature -40–85°C
– Relative humidity 0%–85%
– Operating system support Debian 9 / Android 8.1
– Form factor Pico-ITX, 3.9″ x 2.8″ (100 × 72 mm)

Source: TechPower Up