Better known for its unique Rockchip industrial PC designs, Mekotronics has now launched an “AI Box” based on the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 4GB/8GB or Jetson Orin NX 8GB/16GB for humanoid robots, smart transportation (V2X) applications, Smart Cities, Smart Agriculture, medical imaging, and more.
While the company often provides niche features on its Rockchip systems, its Jetson embedded computer offers pretty standard interfaces with an HDMI video output, six USB Type-A ports, two Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports (one with PoE), a 40-pin GPIO header, two camera connectors, a terminal block for CAN Bus and UART, and a system connector for LEDs, power button, etc…
Mekotronics AI Box specifications:
- Compatible modules
- NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 4GB up to 34 TOPS
- NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8GB up to 67 TOPS
- NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX 8GB up to 117 TOPS
- NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX 16GB up to 157 TOPS
- Storage
- 2x M.2 Key-M sockets for NVMe SSD
- MicroSD card slot
- Video output – HDMI port
- Camera – 2x camera connectors
- Networking
- 2x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports, including one with PoE
- Optional WiFi and Bluetooth with external SMA antenna
- USB
- 4x USB 3.1 Type A ports
- 2x USB 2.0 Type A ports
- 1x USB 3.0 Type-C port
- Expansion
- M.2 Key-M (PCIe Gen3 x4) 2280 socket
- M.2 Key-M (PCIe Gen3 x2) 2230 socket
- 40-pin GPIO header (externally accessible)
- 6-pin terminal block with CAN bus, UART, 3.3V, and GND
- Misc
- 5V PWM fan connector
- 10-pin system connector with UART, auto power on, recovery, LEDs, power button, etc…
- Wall mounting holes
- Power Supply – 9-20V up to 5V via power barrel jack
- Dimensions – PCB: 136 x 79mm
- Temperature Range – -25 ~ 80°C
The company doesn’t mention anything about software, but like other NVIDIA Jetson hardware, it will rely on the latest JetPack 7.x SDK based on Ubuntu 24.04. Mekotronics does point out support for transformer large models, visual SLAM algorithms, and high-precision image recognition.
The Mekotronics AI Box competes against other NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano/MX embedded computers, such as the IBASE EC3100, TWOWIN TW-T808P-G, and Forlinx Embedded FCU3011, among others. Its design looks cost-optimized and should be cheaper than the aforementioned rugged competitors.
However, Mekotronics has yet to provide pricing information, and it’s not listed on the company’s Alibaba store. More details may be found on the product page.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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