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Banana Pi reveals details for upcoming single-board computer with 8-core ARM CPU and 16 TOPS NPU

The Banana Pi BPI-SM9 is the company's latest single-board computer (SBC) powered by an octa-core ARM CPU. (Image source: Banana Pi, edited)
The Banana Pi BPI-SM9 is the company's latest single-board computer (SBC) powered by an octa-core ARM CPU. (Image source: Banana Pi, edited)
Banana Pi has revealed the details surrounding its upcoming BPI-SM9 SBC aimed at edge computing and lightweight AI inferencing, powered by the SOPHGO BM1688 processor with an octa-core setup and decent neural performance, courtesy of its 16 TOPS NPU (INT8). Pricing details are not yet available, and the same goes for availability.

Banana Pi is a pretty well known entity in the realm of single-board computers (SBCs). The company has recently released the details of its upcoming SBC, the Banana Pi BPI-SM9. The SBC is powered by the SOPHGO BM1688 SoC low-power processor with a focus on AI and edge computing.

To be more specific, the BM1688 packs an 8-core CPU composed of Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.6 GHz, paired with 8 GB of LPDDR4x memory. The on-board NPU is rated for up to 16 TOPS at INT8 precision, and 4 TFLOPS at FP16. The chip is capable of decoding and encoding 16 channels and 10 channels of HD video respectively (1080p30).

(Image source: Banana Pi)
(Image source: Banana Pi)
(Image source: Banana Pi)
(Image source: Banana Pi)

The on-board ISP can manage dual 8 MP inputs, with support for lens distortion correction, 3DNR, 2-frame HDR, 3A (AWB, AE, AF) and dehazing. According to Banana Pi, the BPI-SM9 is equipped with 32 GB of eMMC storage, and also sports plenty of I/O options, which have been detailed below:

  • Dual 1G Ethernet
  • HDMI 2.0
  • Dual USB 3.0, single USB 2.0
  • Dual MIPI-CSI
  • Six VI, dual I2S, 4-pin CANH/L, dual UART, dual I2C, dual SPI
  • Six PWMs, unspecified number of GPIO, ADC
  • TF interface, SD/SDIO

As noted by LinuxGizmos, Banana Pi has also stated that the BPI-SM9 is pin-compatible with the Nvidia's Jetson Orin Nano (currently $275 on Amazon) and Orin NX. At just 100 x 79 x 16 mm, the SBC is plenty compact as well. Pricing and availability details have not yet been disclosed.

Notable features of the Banana Pi BPI-SM9 SBC. (Image source: Banana Pi)
Notable features of the Banana Pi BPI-SM9 SBC. (Image source: Banana Pi)

Source(s)

Banana Pi, spotted by LinuxGizmos

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2025 11 > Banana Pi reveals details for upcoming single-board computer with 8-core ARM CPU and 16 TOPS NPU
Sambit Saha, 2025-11-25 (Update: 2025-11-25)