// ITS FOSS — LINUX & OPEN SOURCE
This Tiny SBC Lets You Swap Interface Modules for Voice, Vision or Sensing
You get an SBC and start building projects on that. You start with a vision project. Then the next project idea needs audio. Perhaps the next one requires a bunch of sensors. Usually that means a stack of HATs on the GPIO header or getting a new SBC.
Vicharak is trying a different route with the Axon-Lite. It's a tiny ARM SBC whose interface modules are swappable, so you change the module to match the job instead of changing the board.
This "reconfigurable computing" pitch is what makes this ARM board slightly different from the rest.
Vicharak already offers a FPGA-based Vaaman and an RAM-based Axion line. The Axon-Lite is the smallest member of its Axon line. So they may be relatively new in this field, but they are not total novices.
As you can already see, the highlight here is the modularity. The board uses what Vicharak calls its modular connector interface, and the idea is that you snap on a different interface module as needed.
The company shows four so far: Voice Processing, Smart Sensing, AI Data Hub and AI Vision. On top of that, there's board-to-board expansion, so you can stack a daughter board rather than swap.
There's a but worth keeping in mind. A modular connector is only as useful as the module lineup that actually ships for it. And if this is a proprietary interface, not a standard one, so you will be dependent on whatever expansion board Vicharak is offering.
Under the modules sits a Rockchip RK3576. It's an octa-core chip that slots in above the entry-level RK3566 and below the flagship RK3588, which makes it a sensible middle ground for edge work.
Vicharak lists a 6 TOPS NPU alongside it, the same NPU figure you get on much pricier RK3588 boards, which is plenty for running vision and other on-device AI models locally. The company also claims the SoC is built on a TSMC 5nm process.
Memory is LPDDR5, and storage is flexible with eMMC 5.1, UFS 3.1 and a microSD slot all supported. The inclusion of faster UFS on a board this size is a nice touch.