This $149 Qualcomm-powered Raspberry Pi rival has 5G and an AI accelerator

(Image credit: Particle)

The Raspberry Pi is one of the most useful single-board computers you can buy today; the extensibility of the platform combined with the great hardware allows you to do just about anything. I have two Pi 4 units in the house, and I use them to run a home-wide ad blocker, VPN, music server, and Home Assistant.

You don't usually get many launches in this segment, but that's changing with the debut of Tachyon, Particle's latest single-board computer. Particle is an IoT microcontroller manufacturer, and with the Tachyon, it is rolling out a solution that has incredible hardware — and all the extras you need to get started.

The Tachyon is powered by Qualcomm's QCM6490, and the chipset has an eight-core configuration of Arm v8 cores, including a Cortex A78 core running at 2.7GHz, three A78 cores at 2.4GHz, and four A55 cores at 1.9GHz. You also get an Adreno 643 GPU, and what's particularly interesting is that there's an NPU that goes up to 12 TOPS, unlocking a suite of AI use cases.

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Particle Tachyon board in-hand — (Image credit: Particle)

There's a lot to like on the connectivity side of things as well, with the Tachyon offering Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 along with global 5G connectivity. The board is sold in two variants — North America and Rest of World — and it has distinct 5G bands based on the region. The NA unit comes with bands 2/5/7/12/13/14/25/26/29/30/38/41/48/66/70/71/77/78, and the global variant has 1/3/5/4/8/20/28/38/40/41/77/78/79.

The board comes with 4GB of RAM as standard, and there's 64GB of UFS storage pre-installed. The rest of the hardware includes a standard 40-pin GPIO header, two USB-C 3.1 ports, GPS, and SD card reader. The only limitation that I can see is the lack of an Ethernet port, and if you wanted to set it up as a headless server, it becomes a bit of a hassle.

Particle Tachyon board with cable connected to it — (Image credit: Particle)

As for the software, the Tachyon runs Ubuntu, and you can install Android just as easily. The QCM6490 can work with Windows 11 as well, but Particle says it hasn't seen demand for it, so it isn't providing a way to install that on the Tachyon yet.

Coming in at $149 on Kickstarter, the Tachyon clearly has a lot going for it, and it is one of the fastest products in this segment. If you've dabbled with a Pi in the past and want something with a little more power or a built-in AI accelerator, the Tachyon is turning out to be a decent choice. The product is still in the crowdfunding phase, with deliveries only going out in January 2025. I'll get my hands on one closer to launch, but if you're eyeing an upgrade to your Pi 5, this may just be it.

Harish Jonnalagadda is Android Central's Senior Editor of Asia. In his current role, he oversees the site's coverage of Chinese phone brands, networking products, and AV gear. He has been testing phones for over a decade, and has extensive experience in mobile hardware and the global semiconductor industry. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.