AI Accelerator Enables Low-Power Generative AI on Raspberry Pi 5

EdgeCortix has announced that its industry-leading AI accelerator module, SAKURA-II M.2, is now available for Arm-based platforms, including Raspberry Pi 5 and the AETINA Rockchip platform. The module delivers high performance and efficiency for edge AI computing applications while democratising real-time Generative AI capabilities.

Designed with a focus on low power consumption and high AI throughput, the SAKURA-II M.2 module enables developers to run advanced deep learning models directly on compact, affordable platforms, such as the Raspberry Pi 5 and other Arm-based platforms, without relying on cloud infrastructure. Generative AI capabilities for embedded Arm platforms are expected to fuel the next wave of intelligent, autonomous systems.

“Bringing our low-power AI acceleration technology to Raspberry Pi 5 users opens the door for innovators and enterprises around the world to build smarter, faster, and more efficient edge AI-driven devices and systems rapidly,” said Dr. Sakyasingha Dasgupta, Founder and CEO of EdgeCortix.

“Pairing the Raspberry Pi 5 with EdgeCortix’s SAKURA-II delivers an incredibly efficient and scalable platform for real-time generative AI at the edge”, said Sailesh Chittipeddi, Venture Partner at Novo Tellus Capital Partners and Board Member at both Lantronix and Tessolve. “What’s equally compelling is SAKURA-II’s ability to accelerate a broad range of Arm-based systems, empowering next-gen IoT and edge applications engineers to deploy high-performance AI across diverse applications without the cost or power burden of traditional data centre hardware.”

The module with Raspberry Pi 5 and other Arm-enabled platforms enables the direct execution of the latest Generative AI on-device, with minimal latency and power consumption, including advanced AI models such as Vision Transformers, Small Language Models, and Vision Language Models (VLMs). Furthermore, SAKURA-II and Raspberry Pi deliver powerful edge AI at a fraction of the cost of traditional products, reducing infrastructure needs and enabling cost-efficient scaling.

Optimised for Arm, the module provides seamless offloading of AI workloads from Arm processors, allowing for balanced performance and efficiency. Developers can quickly scale from prototypes to production using production-ready SAKURA-II M.2 modules with certified Raspberry Pi 5 and other Arm platforms.

The combination is ideal for autonomous AI in SWaP-C-constrained environments, perfect for drones, robotics, smart agriculture, and security, where size, weight, power, and cost limitations demand efficient on-device intelligence.

With these Arm platforms, EdgeCortix is empowering a broad ecosystem of developers and hardware innovators to build cost-effective, production-ready edge AI. This enables both startups and enterprises to deploy intelligent applications without depending on the cloud, running Generative AI on the device with minimal power requirements.