NVIDIA Jetson TX2 Dominates Raspberry Pi

The NVIDIA TX1 developer board has been updated with a new model called simply enough the Jetson TX2. The TX2 is about the size of a Raspberry Pi developer board but is much more powerful. Jetson TX2 is aimed at people developing robots, drones, and other devices that need computer vision applications to operate.

The biggest feature of the TX2 is its integrated Pascal GPU architecture supporting computer vision and making it easier for robots or drones built with the chip to navigate. NVIDIA says that the Jetson TX2 is twice as powerful as the TX1 while needing two times less power. According to the maker TX2 generates 1.5 teraflops of performance.

Jetson TX2 has a 64-bit Denver 2 and A57 CPUs paired with 8GB of 128-bit LPDDR4 RAM operating at 58.4 GB/s. Onboard storage is 32GB of eMMC, WiFi is integrated and the board is Bluetooth ready.

The board is capable of 2160p at 60 video encoding and the same video decoding with 12-bit support for H.265, VP9. Camera support is 1.4Gpix/s with up to 2.5Gbps per lane. The board measures 50mm x 87mm and has a 400-pin compatible board to board connector. With so much more performance than the Raspberry Pi, you would be correct in assuming the price is much higher.

NVIDIA has priced the Jetson TX2 at $299 with major ports like Ethernet, if you are a student. If you aren’t a student, the setup will cost you $599. A more basic kit with fewer ports will cost $399 in 1000 unit lots. Shipping will start in the US and Europe later this month and in Asia-Pacific next month. The board is capable of running Ubuntu and ROS.