Hailo-8 NPU bundles up with Kontron Pico-ITX and embedded PC

Hailo-8 NPU bundles up with Kontron Pico-ITX and embedded PC

Nov 16, 2021 — by Eric Brown

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Kontron is providing Hailo’s up to 26-TOPS, 3-TOPS per Watt Hailo-8 NPU with its i.MX8M-based pITX-iMX8M Pico-ITX SBC and Whiskey Lake based KBox A-150-WKL systems running Linux.

Hailo continues its slow-rolling conquest of the embedded computing world by announcing another hardware partner that will offer its Hailo-8 NPU, once again via the Hailo-8 M.2 AI Acceleration Module. The up to 26-TOPS, 3-TOPS per Watt NPU module can be purchased with Kontron’s pITX-iMX8M, a Pico-ITX board equipped with NXP’s i.MX8M, as well as its compact KBox A-150-WKL embedded PC with Intel’s 8th Gen Whiskey Lake platform.

The Hailo-8 NPU uses a “proprietary novel structure-driven” Dataflow architecture that differs from the Van Neumann architecture used on most neural processors. The architecture achieves low-power memory access by implementing a distributed memory fabric combined with purpose-made pipeline elements.

Hailo and Kontron are supporting the Hailo-8 with preinstalled drivers and a BSP that runs only under Linux. The complete software toolchain is available at Hailo’s developer zone website, including numerous pre-trained neural networks (“model zoo”), a bit–accurate simulator and performance tool, the Hailo dataflow compiler, and the Hailo “TAPPAS” high performance application toolkit.

The pITX-iMX8M, which will be offered in a pITX-iMX8M-AI-H8 model preloaded with the Hailo-8, ships with 4GB of soldered LPDDR4 and up to 64GB eMMC 5.1. Mini-DisplayPort and HDMI ports provide 4K video. The pITX-iMX8M also provides 2x GbE and 2x USB 3.0 ports and an M.2 slot with micro-SIM.

pITX-iMX8M
(click image to enlarge)

The KBox A-150-WKL (and upcoming KBox A-150-WKL-AI-H8) combines its low-power 8th Gen CPU with up to 64GB DDR4. The fanless system offers 2x GbE, 2x DP, 2x COM, 4x USB 3.1 Gen2, 3x M.2, and optional CAN and DIN-rail.


KBox A-150-WKL
(click image to enlarge)

The Hailo-8 is also available on Foxconn’s SynQuacer SC2A11 powered BOXiedge AI edge server, as well as Leopard Imaging’s Socionext SC2000 based EdgeTuring edge AI system. Other bundles are available with Lanner’s LEC-2290 and LEC-7242 embedded PCs built around Coffee Lake and Apollo Lake, respectively, as well as Vecow’s Whiskey Lake based ABP-3000 edge AI system and MicroSys’ LX2160A powered miriac AIP-LX2160A dev kit.

“Our strategic technology partnership with Hailo enables us to offer our customers a new level of AI-edge application-ready platforms,” stated Christoph Neumann, VP Technology of the Kontron group. “The partnership also includes the joint creation of new AI-ready board level products and custom solutions on a project basis.”

Further information

No pricing or availability information was provided for the Hailo-8 equipped pITX-iMX8M-AI-H8 and KBox A-150-WKL-AI-H8. More information may be found in Kontron’s announcement, as well as its pITX-iMX8M-AI-H8 and KBox A-150-WKL-AI-H8 product pages. More on Hailo-8 may be found at Hailo’s website.

Hailo will be presenting a live AI demo as a Kontron co-exhibitor at the SPS 2021 exhibition in Nuremberg, Germany. The demo can be seen Nov. 23-25 at the Kontron booth in hall 7, booth 193.