It was a well-received gift for developers just before Christmas. NVIDIA® has introduced a new power mode for the two SoMs (System on Modules) Jetson Orin™ Nano and Jetson Orin™ NX. Developer kits are already now shipping with it today.
Thanks to the performance boost, advanced generative AI models such as large language models (LLMs), visual language models (VLMs), and vision transformers can be used more efficiently on these compact devices than before. The Super Mode is enabled via a software update, so existing Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kits can also benefit from these performance enhancements.
In addition, the price of the Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit has been reduced to 249 US dollars. This makes the kit a great value for developers building AI applications at the edge.
There's no change to the hardware for the new power mode. The modules are optimised by the new software. NVIDIA will release JetPack SDK 6.2 in January 2025 to enable Power Mode on all Jetson Orin Nano and Jetson Orin NX production modules.
Syslogic is also be upgrading its rugged embedded computers based on Jetson Orin. The Jetson Nano based devices will be available with Super Mode immediately after the release of JetPack 6.2 For the Jetson NX devices, Syslogic expects the Super Mode to be available by the end of the first quarter.
The maximum power consumption of the system on module (SoM) has increased, from 15 watts to 25 watts for the Orin Nano and from 25 watts to 40 watts for the Orin NX. This particularly benefits the GPU with its Tensor Cores. The new power mode increases the operating frequency of these components from 635 MHz to 1020 MHz for the Orin Nano and from 765 MHz to 1173 MHz for the Orin NX, resulting in a significant increase of their GPU computing power, with the Nano reaching 67 TOPs and the NX reaching 157 TOPs.
NVIDIA has also increased the CPU clock speed of the Nano from 1.5GHz to 1.7GHz, but only when the module is running in Super mode. This performance boost opens up new possibilities for application development using NVIDIA Jetson modules. At the same time, developers who have maxed out the performance of their Jetson modules will benefit. They may be able to avoid upgrading to the next higher performance platform and continue working with their existing hardware.
There's one small change that went almost unnoticed, but it's just as important to industrial users as the performance boost. NVIDIA has also announced that the Jetson Orin will be around until 2032. This means that developers can be assured of both performance and availability.
Syslogic Product Manager Michael Jung says: “NVIDIA has once again demonstrated its commitment to innovation with its latest product release. Both the increase in performance for existing products and the promise of long-term availability show NVIDIA's commitment to the industry”.
