tech
January 15, 2026
Raspberry Pi’s new add-on board has 8GB of RAM for running gen AI models
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TL;DR
- Raspberry Pi releases AI HAT+ 2, a $130 add-on board for Raspberry Pi 5.
- Features a Hailo 10H chip with 40 TOPS of AI performance and 8GB of RAM.
- Enables local running of generative AI models like Llama 3.2 and Qwen.
- Allows Raspberry Pi 5 to offload AI tasks, freeing up the main CPU.
- Demonstrations show text description generation from camera streams and text translation.
- Testing by Jeff Geerling suggests a standalone Raspberry Pi 5 with more RAM outperforms the AI HAT+ 2.
- Performance differences may be due to the AI HAT+ 2's 3W power limit compared to the Pi 5's 10W.
- The AI HAT+ 2's 8GB RAM might not be sufficient for a significant advantage over a higher-RAM Raspberry Pi 5.
- An earlier, cheaper AI HAT ($70) focuses on AI image processing.
- Raspberry Pi plans updates for more and larger AI models.