Summary

  • Particle's Tachyon SBC is a powerhouse with 5G, AI, and numerous features packed onto a credit card-sized board.
  • CEO Zach Supalla aims to democratize bleeding-edge technology for engineers and innovators with the Tachyon.
  • Back the Tachyon on Kickstarter for $149 to support Particle's track record of successful projects and cutting-edge technology.

With people doing so many innovative things with Raspberry Pis, it's easy to think it's the only SBC out there. However, ignoring the competition can be a seriously bad move, as manufacturers are creating some seriously cool boards that can do things a Pi can't. Such is the case with Particle's Tachyon, the first 5G-powered, AI-enabled SBC that the company claims is suitable "for everyone and everything."

👁 Back of the Milk V Duo S SBC, showing
My first hands-on experience of RISC-V is with the Milk-V Duo S, and I'm excited

The Milk-V Duo S is a RISC-V SBC that has an Arm CPU in tow, though you can't make use of it just yet.

Particle reveals the Tachyon SBC for $149

Image Credit: Particle

It's probably easier to list all the things that the Tachyon doesn't have, as this SBC is packing a ton of features into a tiny board. But we have to start somewhere, so here goes.

Alongside the aforementioned 5G connectivity, the Tachyon also has a Wi-Fi 6E antenna, both of which are built onto the board. The Tachyon also sports an octa-core Qualcomm Kryo CPU, 4GB RAM, and 64GB of built-in flash storage. It comes with an Adreno 643 GPU and sports 12 TOPS of AI processing power. Finally, it has over 20 different camera sensors, a USB-C 3.1 PD port, a 2-land PCI3 Gen 3 slot, and a DSI 4-lane that can go up to 1200x2520. All on a board the size of a credit card - phew.

As you might imagine, Zach Supalla, the CEO of Particle, is pretty pleased with this powerhouse of an SBC:

"Any engineer or technically minded person should have access to the building blocks of a modern smartphone, but that's not the case right now. 5G connectivity and AI accelerators are limited today because they’re not democratized; only a few large players have access to the bleeding-edge technology that will power the next wave of connected devices. Exploration is the beginning of the innovation cycle, and we want Tachyon to enable that spark of imagination to take root."

If you're interested, you can head over to Particle's Kickstarter page and back the Tachyon for $149. Particle has plenty of backer experience with the Spark Core and the Electron, so you know you'll be in good hands if you do decide to invest in this project.