It feels that only a few days have passed since we announced the HatDrive! Nano, and there is much more in the pipeline that we're excited to share with you! Today, though, we have our Pineboards Ai Bundle (Hailo 8L) to whet your ever-hungry AI appetites, and we think you're going to love it.

Combining an M.2 2280 M-Key NVMe connection with an M.2 2230 A/E-Key connection pre-loaded with a Hailo-8L on a bottom-mounted Raspberry Pi 5 HAT enables you to get your AI fix whilst also being able to boot and make use of fast NVMe storage. This builds on the success of our ever-popular Raspberry Pi 5 AI HAT and Google Coral combinations, but massively bumps the processing power, enabling you to do so much more!Let's point out some of the best features of the Pineboards Ai Bundle (Hailo 8L):

Familiar software stack
If you've already been using the Raspberry Pi AI Kit, or you've been thinking about it and not quite pulled the trigger, you don't have to change your plans or software. Everything will work identically as we're using the same Hailo-8L AI Accelerator, albeit in a different M.2 format.

This means that rpicam-apps is fully compatible, and you can obtain it, along with other Hailo-8L management software under the hailo-all apt package.

Cool under pressure
We've gone ahead and pre-installed a thermal pad between the Hailo-8L module and the HatDrive! PCB to help to dissipate heat. With it being a bottom-mounted, full-size device, we can make use of the larger ground plane for cooling too.

Best of both worlds
Why should give up your sole PCIe connection just for your Hailo 8L? Get the best of both worlds with a powerful 13 Tera-operations per second (TOPS) AI Accelerator alongside fast, bootable PCIe Gen 2 NVMe storage. No microSD cards or USB devices hanging off the board are needed here!

High quality accessories
As always, we bundle a high-quality impedance-controlled PCIe cable (ensuring a consistent and quality connection to your Raspberry Pi 5) with all-metal screws/spacers so you can rest assured that everything stays in place.

Support for M.2 NVMe drives
With an M-Keyed slot supporting 2230, 2242, and 2280 M.2 devices, your options are endless. We recommend going with an M.2 NVMe drive (perhaps the Pinedrive?) so that you can boot from fast storage, however any M-Key M.2 device is suitable so if you really love your microSD cards then feel free to use it as you please.

MSRP for Hailo 8L bundle is €90 (excluding VAT).