One of the first exciting new releases of 2024 was the open-source AI-focused BeagleY-AI from BeagleBoard. A departure from their typical “cape” headers, the BeagleY adopts a Pi-like form factor, with quad 1.4GHz 64-bit Arm Cortex-A53 cores, a powerful GPU supporting three simultaneous displays, and a built-in 4 TOPS AI co-processor.

Specs

BeagleBoard.org BeaglePlay

Type:Single Board Computer

Price:$72

Dimensions:85mm×56mm×20mm

Software:Debian 12.5

Clock Speed:1.4GHz

Main Processor:64-bit quad-core Arm Cortex-A53

Memory:4GB LPDDR4

WI-FI:Wi-Fi 6

Bluetooth:Bluetooth Low Energy

Video:microHDMI, OLDI (LVDS), MIPI-DSI

Ethernet:yes

Input Voltage:5V, 3A

Battery Charging:no

Operating Voltage:5V (3.3V I/O)

David bought his first Arduino in 2007 as part of a Roomba hacking project. Since then, he has been obsessed with writing code that you can touch. David fell in love with the original Pebble smartwatch, and even more so with its successor, which allowed him to combine the beloved wearable with his passion for hardware hacking via its smartstrap functionality. Unable to part with his smartwatch sweetheart, David wrote a love letter to the Pebble community, which blossomed into Rebble, the service that keeps Pebbles ticking today, despite the company's demise in 2016. When he's not hacking on wearables, David can probably be found building a companion bot, experimenting with machine learning, growing his ever-increasing collection of dev boards, or hacking on DOS-based palmtops from the 90s.