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Leading graphic processing units (GPUs) maker Nvidia on Tuesday (December 17) introduced its new compact generative AI supercomputer. Jetson Orin Nano Super, comes at a lower price, boasts enhanced performance, and a software upgrade.
What made headlines, however, was Nvidia deciding to offer the dev kit for the supercomputer for as low as $249 (around Rs 21,147). According to Nvidia, the Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit fits in the palm of your hand. From commercial AI developers to students, the Jetson Orin Nano Super offers generative AI capabilities and performance to develop their own AI tools.
Nvidia has defined its latest offering as a ‘“compact, yet powerful computer” that redefines generative AI for small edge devices. When it comes to performances, the Justin Orin Nano Super delivers up to 67 TOPS of AI, which is a 1.7 times improvement when compared to its predecessor. In simple words, TOPS or Trillions of Operations Per Second, is a key indicator to measure the computational prowess of AI chips and NPU chips (neural processing unit chips that mimic the human brain’s neural network, which is designed to accelerate AI tasks).
The super computer is capable of running some of the most popular generative AI models such as vision transformers, large language models, vision-language models, etc. It features a memory bandwidth of 102 GB/s and CPU frequency of 1.7 GHZ. The computer does not come with built-in storage, and a user may be required to download the operating system to a microSD card to boot the system, much similar to a Raspberry Pie.
The developer kit is essentially a compact computing platform suitable for generative AI applications. It features an 8GB module based on Nvidia’s Ampere GPU architecture with 1,024 CUDA cores, and 32 tensor cores. Both CUDA and tensor cores are specialised processing units in Nvidia’s GPUs. The device comes with a 6-core ARM Cortex-A78 CPU, a processor that has been designed to deliver high-end performance at the best efficiency.
The carrier board on the supercomputer comes with connectivity options such as two camera connectors, four USB 3.2 ports, M.2 slots, and Gigabit Ethernet which allows the computer to connect with servers in local networks. The computer runs on the Nvidia AI software stack. Based on the features, the kit is compact, efficient, and developer-friendly.
While introducing the Jetson Orin Nano Super, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that one could run Cuda, CudNN, and TensorRT and can be used to create an agentic AI that reasons and plans. Essentially, one can use it to build robots or workstations. The Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit, although tiny, can help developers unravel an assortment of applications across industries. It can be put to use in a plethora of scenarios such as smart surveillance systems, robotics, smart retail, healthcare, AI-powered smart home devices and wearables, autonomous vehicles, research and education, content creation, etc.
When it comes to smart surveillance, the computer via camera connectivity can detect anomalies, and identify faces and objects in real-time. Robotics can use its high-performance AI for autonomous manufacturing, logistics, while healthcare can deploy the same to perform some simple tasks such as sorting and delivering. Moreover, small businesses will now be able to deploy generative solutions for predictive analytics and chatbots. In a way, Nvidia’s latest tiny supercomputer is making AI accessible for businesses of all sizes.
