What is Tachyon?

Tachyon is a 5G-connected single-board computer (SBC) that takes the technology inside a modern smartphone and packs it into a Raspberry Pi form factor to power portable and remote computing devices. With a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC, an AI accelerator, and Particle’s edge-to-cloud IoT infrastructure, Tachyon combines all of the edge computing power, connectivity, and software necessary to embed intelligence into anything, anywhere.

Why do I need another single-board computer?

• Look, if you’re reading this, you probably already have a few Raspberry Pis and other single-board computers hanging around. You might even be using them to control machinery, power displays, play retro games, or automate your home. The introduction of a $25 credit card-sized computer changed the game for the industry — hobbyists and professionals alike.
• But today’s SBCs have limits. They’re simple and accessible, and are supported by an extraordinary developer ecosystem. For professional use, however, you’re likely to start to hit obstacles — from limited processing power and thermal management issues to challenges running an operating system off of an SD card and a lack of robust digital security provisions. You’re expected to assemble your own software infrastructure to make everything work, and while that’s great for a challenge, it’s tough on productivity, especially at scale. And that’s where we come in.
  
• Particle’s shtick is that we provide all the tech necessary to build a connected device in a tightly-integrated experience that makes your life easier. We’ve been doing this for IoT microcontrollers for 10 years, and have built the most comprehensive, edge-to-cloud infrastructure for our cellular and Wi-Fi-connected development boards and modules. We’re bringing that “it just works” experience to Linux-based devices, starting with a heavy-duty SBC that overcomes the typical limitations of a tiny embedded computer, designed to be used for anything from personal projects to large-scale deployments.
  

Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC + AI Accelerator:

• At the heart of Tachyon is the Qualcomm QCM6490 — an SoC that takes the power of a Snapdragon and packages it into an IoT-friendly package with upstream Linux support and a ten year longevity guarantee. This is the same chipset that powers the Fairphone 5, and the same tech under the hood that powers the Nothing Phone (1) and a variety of smartphones from Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, and Oppo.
  
• The QCM6490 features an octa-core Qualcomm Kryo CPU, making Tachyon one of the most powerful single board computers on the market. In addition, Tachyon has a Qualcomm Adreno 643 GPU and a Qualcomm Hexagon 770 DSP containing an AI accelerator capable of delivering 12 TOPS. It can drive 4K displays, consume high resolution video from two cameras, and run powerful AI/ML models to detect objects in video streams, classify sounds in audio streams, and process language. For a spec comparison to other SBCs, take a look at this table.
  
• Tachyon is capable of doing real work wherever you deploy it — at home, at work, or far afield.
  

Global 5G connectivity + Wi-Fi 6E

Map of Tachyon EtherSIM global coverage

• Upgrading the processor is only the beginning. We want to make it easy to deploy these things anywhere, and that means blazing-fast 5G connectivity.
• Not only does Tachyon come with 5G connectivity operating at up to 2.5Gbs (with LTE fallback and an integrated custom cellular antenna!), but it comes pre-loaded with Particle’s embedded EtherSIM with free cellular telemetry and an optional low-cost data plan (more details below).
  
• Sending gobs of data? Don’t worry, Tachyon has a Wi-Fi 6E connection for blazing fast connectivity over your Wi-Fi network, again with a built in antenna.
• Tachyon will come in two regional variants — North America and Rest of World. You will be able to select your preferred variant after the Kickstarter campaign closes. For a complete list of countries supported by Tachyon EtherSIM, check this table.

USB-C + Pi HATs + Display/Camera/PCIe Connectors

• Tachyon is a powerful computer in its own right, but it really comes alive when connecting displays, cameras, sensors, and other peripherals.
• But where are the usual big blocky USB and Ethernet ports, you ask? Well, don’t let the fancy cellular antenna make you think we forgot about wires and cables. Tachyon has dual USB-C connectors, automatically operating in both device and host modes depending on the attached cable. One of the USB-C 3.1 connections supports Display Port Alt Mode, which means you can connect Tachyon directly to a USB-C capable monitor (up to 4K), or use a USB-C Hub (such as the one we are offering as an add-on!) to add USB ports, HDMI and a gigabit Ethernet port. Oh, and for those familiar with Android development, we are using Fastboot and ADB so you can plug the device straight into your computer to power and control it over a single cable.
  
• Of course, Tachyon also contains a Raspberry Pi-compatible 40-pin connector, plus support for cameras, displays, and PCIe peripherals connected via ribbon cables. Whether you’re using off-the-shelf peripherals, Raspberry Pi HATs, or building Tachyon into a custom PCB, Tachyon can handle whatever you throw at it.
  

Ubuntu + Yocto

Tachyon running Ubuntu

• A single-board computer is only as good as its software. We want to provide a software experience with “a low floor and a high ceiling”; it should be easy for anyone to get started, while at the same time highly capable and completely under your control.
• Our software experience starts with Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 from Canonical. Ubuntu has made a name for itself with its user-friendly design and robust support community, making it an excellent choice for both newcomers and experienced users. Mac and PC users should feel right at home with a familiar desktop experience, and Debian’s vast repository of software ensures that you have all the tools you need at your fingertips.
• For headless applications (i.e. no display), we’ll also be providing support for a headless Ubuntu build that supports A/B partitions, enabling atomic OS upgrades out in the field.
• Advanced users may prefer a more controlled environment and have stronger opinions on what should be in their Linux distribution; for these users, we will be supporting Yocto. Superusers who want to try running any other distribution or even operating systems — have at it! The chipset we’re using has upstream Qualcomm Linux support, as well as support for Android 13 and Windows 11.
  

Remote access + telemetry + OTA

Particle’s edge-to-cloud infrastructure includes everything you need to deploy an IoT device — including device management, OTA software updates, connectivity management, and data automation. Our IoT platform is included for free with Tachyon, for up to 100 devices per account — and that includes a low data rate cellular plan for device management and telemetry!

With a decade of experience in microcontroller-based products, Particle is expanding our infrastructure to support Linux-based devices with the following services:

• Remote access: Direct device control via remote desktop sharing or SSH sessions.
• Upgrade: Deploy OTA updates to keep your operating system, applications, and security up to date. OTA payloads are flexible, ranging from filesystem overlays and Debian packages to entire system disk images.
• Remote control: Indirect device management, including running terminal commands/scripts, taking screenshots, starting/stopping services, rebooting/shutting down, locking the screen, and killing/restarting processes.
• Networking configuration: Control on-device network interfaces (WiFi, Cellular, Ethernet) and the on-device firewall along with bandwidth controls to prevent run-away data usage.
• Security: Configuration of user accounts, SSH keys, and on-device secrets keep your systems up to date and our Device Protection feature allows for the disabling of interfaces including the USB-C and wireless connections.
• Monitoring: On-device metrics, including CPU, memory, battery charge, temperature, and connectivity signal strengths, can be pulled on demand from on-device collection agents on a periodic or on-demand basis.
• Alerting: Receive system alerts through our console or API for events, including device online status changes, cellular usage, low battery, high CPU usage, and low disk space.
• File transfer: Perform bi-directional file transfers or complete backups of your devices over a secure connection.

Particle’s IoT platform has been operational for ten years, processing billions of events and millions of OTA updates every month, with a strong focus on reliability, scalability, and security. Users who prefer to uninstall this service can do so easily with a simple Debian package manager command (see the FAQ for further details).

EtherSIM: Free basic telemetry + connectivity for as little 

So how do you actually use that 5G connectivity? Embedded into Tachyon is the next generation of Particle’s EtherSIM — a reprogrammable, 5G capable eSIM, providing flexible and tailored connectivity options in 40 countries.

• Particle’s IoT platform comes with built-in low-bandwidth connectivity to support remote telemetry and device management .You can activate, deactivate, and reactivate the high-bandwidth data plan at any time.
  
• We will be developing and adding other connectivity plans, including partnering with carriers on native connectivity plans, but we’re eager to hear about what you’re planning to build and what your data needs will be so that we can design the best set of options. Do you want a low-cost megabyte scale plan? Unlimited data plans? Let us know what you need and we’ll work to make it happen!

What can Tachyon do?

• Tachyon is limited only by your imagination, and if our microcontroller products are any indication, that will cover a pretty wide range of uses. Particle’s customers use our platform to do everything from monitoring equipment in dentist’s offices to searching for methane escapes on an oil site to tracking lobster boats off of the coast of Maine to providing access controls to gyms and breastfeeding stations. IoT isn’t just about home automation — it’s everywhere, in a thousand places you wouldn’t expect.
• But, caveats aside — let’s whet your appetite with some of the kinds of things that we expect you might want to explore.
  

IoT and robotics: cameras, microphones, sensors, and controls

• The Internet of Things is composed of all manner of sensors and control systems. Tachyon can easily handle basic sensor data, as well as processing video and audio. This makes it a great solution for anything ranging from traffic cameras to robotics.
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Edge AI: AI assistants, computer vision, audio classification

• The Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 are early examples of personal AI assistants, showcasing the potential but also highlighting the nascent state of AI hardware products. Think you can do better? Tachyon is a great platform to build your own JARVIS, leveraging smaller Large Language Models (LLMs) for low-latency responses and blazing-fast connectivity for tapping into cloud-hosted LLMs like ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
• On the other hand, if you’re thinking less about consumer AI products and more about industrial applications like smart buildings, smart cities, or AgTech, you can run open source computer vision and audio classification models like YOLO or AST.
  

Hobbyist computing: Media hosting, portable gaming, home lab

• One of the most popular uses of single board computers is to host media, play games, or act as a “home lab” web server powering home automation software like Home Assistant or acting as a DIY NAS.
• With the Tachyon’s powerful processor and 5G connection, you can use it for all these same purposes — but supporting heavier workloads and portability. Want to make your own DIY Steam Deck? Have at it.
  

The prototype-to-production IoT platform

• Tachyon and Ubuntu desktop transition to Monitor One and Particle Console
  
• While single board computers are great for hobbyists and prototyping, if designed for the enterprise from the start, they can also be a great solution for professional IoT products deployed at scale.
• Particle’s “prototype-to-production” IoT platform is designed to support customers through the entire lifecycle of an IoT product, from first prototype to large-scale deployment. Our hosted, multi-tenant cloud service is both easy to use for development and secure, scalable, and reliable for production-grade deployments. We process billions of events and millions of OTA software updates per month, supported by a world-class team of “Particle Watchdogs” that ensure that your fleet of IoT devices is operating as expected out in the field.
  
• Interested in building a professional-grade product with Tachyon? Contact our sales team to learn about how we can support you (or to learn about our existing portfolio of microcontroller-based devices).

Notes :

Available options are

• 1x Tachyon
• 3x Tachyons
• 5x Tachyons 

Package Includes: 

• 1 x Particle Tachyon: Powerful 5G single-board computer w/ AI accelerator