Raspberry Pi partners with Hailo for its AI extension kit

Raspberry Pi releases a $70 AI Kit with Hailo for enhanced local AI inferencing capabilities.

: Raspberry Pi has partnered with AI chip startup Hailo to release a new $70 AI Kit, transforming the Raspberry Pi 5 into an AI computing device. The kit includes the Hailo-8L accelerator, enabling 13 TOPS of inferencing power. This allows applications such as neural network-inferencing in camera applications and other edge AI tasks.

The recent partnership between Raspberry Pi and Hailo has led to the creation of an AI Extension Kit priced at $70, which significantly augments the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi 5 by integrating a neural network inference accelerator. This AI kit utilizes a HAT+ extension card with an M.2 slot, to which the Hailo-8L accelerator module is connected through a PCIe 3.0 interface. Once installed, this setup enables the Raspberry Pi 5 to achieve inferencing speeds up to 13 tera-operations per second (TOPS), although less powerful compared to Nvidia's offerings, it is notably cost-effective and operates within the Raspberry Pi's 27W power budget.

On the software side, the most recent Raspberry Pi OS has been configured to automatically recognize the Hailo module, enabling out-of-box usage for enhanced processing right away. Raspberry Pi has also updated its camera applications to utilize the AI capabilities of the new kit, supporting functions like object detection, semantic segmentation, and facial landmarking for various applications such as smart cameras and robotics. These features demonstrate the flexibility and utility of the Raspberry Pi with the AI Kit in edge computing scenarios.

The collaboration between Raspberry Pi and Hailo signifies a pivotal shift in the accessibility of AI functionality for hobbyists, educators, and industrial users by making it affordable and user-friendly. The community around Raspberry Pi is expected to innovate further by developing applications that leverage the enhanced capabilities of the device with the AI Kit. It is a substantial step forward in democratizing AI technology, making it available on a widely used platform like the Raspberry Pi, which is known for its adaptability and robust ecosystem.

AI KitRaspberry Pi 5Hailo-8L