M5Stack has just released the AI Pyramid Computing Box, which is unlike any computer you’ve ever seen. That’s exactly the purpose, as it’s designed exclusively for developers and makers who require edge AI without having to send all of their data to the cloud.
The Axera AX8850 SoC is at the heart of the system, essentially a processor that handles all of the hard lifting. It has eight Arm Cortex-A55 cores that can clock up to 1.7 GHz for ordinary tasks and a dedicated NPU that can give an amazing 24 TOPS of INT8 performance. This means that computer vision, speech recognition, and even some smaller language models can all operate in real time on the device, with no need for the cloud. There are two memory options: a standard model with 4GB LPDDR4x memory ($199) that is evenly distributed between the OS and AI acceleration, and the Pro version with 8GB of memory ($248) for more demanding tasks. You also have 32GB of eMMC storage and a microSD card for when you need more capacity.
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The AI Pyramid Computing Box really shines when it comes to video; the hardware engine can encode and decode H.264/H.265 up to 8K at 30 frames per second, and it can even decode sixteen 1080p streams at the same time, all on the fly, allowing you to run multi-camera security or object detection alongside other tasks.
The dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, which offer a solid connection, handle networking quite effectively. You also get two HDMI 2.0 outputs that can reach 4K at 60 Hz, and the Pro model includes an HDMI input. Four USB 3.0 Type-A ports, two USB Type-C (one of which can give 100W of power), and UART and I2C are all very conventional, but useful nonetheless. Then there’s four microphones, a built-in speaker and amplifier, plus four RGB LEDs and a little OLED display that can show you some status info, or even some bespoke stuff, all controlled in part by a little STM32 coprocessor that also looks after things like power monitoring and buttons.
The computer also includes an active cooling mechanism, allowing it to function at full capacity without becoming too hot. In actuality, the pyramid shape is quite compact, as the ports and features are all stacked along the side, making it simple to access the necessary components. There’s even a button at the top that allows you to perform a few actions that you define.
For developers, this is a dream come true because it’s an open platform designed for running AI stuff offline while keeping things private. You can use it to run Home Assistant, configure Frigate for security cameras, manage your images with Immich, and even try out some voice applications like Cosy Voice. The platform is rather open, so you can create almost whatever you want, including a smart home hub, an interactive kiosk, and so on.
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