.. _bbai-introduction:

Introduction
#############

Built on the proven BeagleBoard.org® open source Linux approach,
BeagleBone® AI fills the gap between small SBCs and more powerful
industrial computers. Based on the Texas Instruments AM5729, developers
have access to the powerful SoC with the ease of BeagleBone® Black
header and mechanical compatibility. BeagleBone® AI makes it easy to
explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in everyday life
via TI C66x digital-signal-processor (DSP) cores and
embedded-vision-engine (EVE) cores supported through an optimized TIDL
machine learning OpenCL API with pre-installed tools. Focused on
everyday automation in industrial, commercial and home applications.

.. image:: images/BB_AI_BeautyAngle_800px.jpg
   :align: center
   :alt: BeagleBone AI Beauty Angle

.. _beaglebone-ai-overview:

BeagleBone AI Overview
======================

.. image:: images/BB_AI_overview_image.*
   :align: center
   :alt: BeagleBone AI Overview

BeagleBone® AI Features
************************

Main Processor Features of the AM5729 Within BeagleBone® AI
============================================================

-  Dual 1.5GHz ARM® Cortex®-A15 with out-of-order speculative issue
   3-way superscalar execution pipeline for the fastest execution of
   existing 32-bit code
-  2 C66x Floating-Point VLIW DSP supported by OpenCL
-  4 Embedded Vision Engines (EVEs) supported by TIDL machine learning
   library
-  2x Dual-Core Programmable Real-Time Unit (PRU) subsystems (4 PRUs
   total) for ultra low-latency control and software generated
   peripherals
-  2x Dual ARM® Cortex®-M4 co-processors for real-time control
-  IVA-HD subsystem with support for 4K @ 15fps H.264 encode/decode and
   other codecs @ 1080p60
-  Vivante® GC320 2D graphics accelerator
-  Dual-Core PowerVR® SGX544™ 3D GPU

Communications
===============

-  BeagleBone Black header and mechanical compatibility
-  16-bit LCD interfaces
-  4+ UARTs
-  2 I2C ports
-  2 SPI ports
-  Lots of PRU I/O pins

Memory
=======

-  1GB DDR3L
-  16GB on-board eMMC flash

Connectors
===========

-  USB Type-C connector for power and SuperSpeed dual-role controller
-  Gigabit Ethernet
-  802.11ac 2.4/5GHz WiFi via the AzureWave AW-CM256SM

Out of Box Software
====================

-  Zero-download out of box software environment

Board Component Locations
**************************

.. image:: images/BB_AI_ICPlacement_800px.png
   :width: 740
   :align: center
   :alt: beaglebone ai component placement

.. image:: images/BB_AI_Connectorplacement_800px.png
    :width: 740
    :align: center
    :alt: Connector placement front

.. image:: images/BB_AI_Connectorplacement_back_800px.png
   :width: 740   
   :align: center
   :alt: Connector placement back