The NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit reveal at GTC 2023 introduces a new mid-range monster to the Jetson lineup. Looky here:
Introduction
This new addition to the Jetson lineup complements and completes the product range.
At the entry level, we have the original Jetson Nano Dev Kit. At the top end, we have the Jetson AGX Orin Kit. In the middle, what is most likely the sweet spot, is the new Jetson Orin Nano Dev Kit. Even though it has the name Nano in the title, to me this feels much more like a Jetson Xavier NX Dev Kit replacement.
Some people make a comparison to the older Jetson Nano and claim an impressive 80-fold increase in performance. They’re right of course. Remember that the Jetson Nano (Tegra X1 processor) was first introduced in 2015. That’s forever and a day ago in computer time. Two more chip generations have come and gone since then. Jetson TX2 (2017) and Jetson Xavier (2019).
On the other hand, we expect that the Tegra Orin chip fabricated with a 7nm process would perform better than a 20nm process TX1. Or maybe that’s just me. For our purposes here, we’ll compare it against the Jetson Xavier NX.
The price for the Jetson Orin Devkit is $499 USD ( $399 with EDU discount through NVIDIA). One interesting point is that both the TX1 and TX2 were $599 at introduction. The Xavier NX was $399. The Orin Nano is certainly in the ballpark price wise in comparison.
Where to Buy
On Amazon: NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit
Also available through other NVIDIA Distributors:
- Arrow
- Sparkfun
- Silicon Highway
- Seeed Studios
You’ll also need a 64GB+ microSD card, for example: Samsung EVO 64GB
Specifications
Looking at the Orin Nanos big brother, the AGX Orin Developer Kit, we see a good number of similarities. The Orin Nano Devkit is broken down into two major parts.
Jetson Orin Nano Module
The Jetson Module which has the compute components, and the reference carrier board. Let’s take a look at the major specs of the Jetson module:
| MODULE | NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB Module |
| GPU | NVIDIA Ampere architecture with 1024 NVIDIA CUDA Cores and 32 3rd Generation Tensor Cores |
| CPU | 6-core Arm Cortex-A78AE v8.2 64-bit CPU 1.5 MB L2 + 4 MB L3 |
| Memory | 8 GB 128-bit LPDDR5 68 GB/s |
| Storage | External through microSD slot External NVMe through M.2 Key M |
| Power | 7 W to 15 W |
Comparing the AGX Orin and Orin Nano charts, the Orin Nano appears to be 1/2 of an AGX Orin with some of the fancy bits removed. There are no Deep Learning Accelerators (NVDLA), or a vision accelerator. The memory is 128-bit on the Orin Nano, 256-bit on the AGX Orin with the resulting hit in bandwidth. Also, the hardware video encoder has been removed from the Orin Nano. More on that later.
Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit Carrier Board
The carrier board is a reference design. In addition to supporting the Jetson Orin Nano module, it will also work with the Jetson Orin NX. This reference design is freely available.
Here are some specs:
| REFERENCE CARRIER BOARD | |
| Camera | 2x MIPI CSI-2 22-pin Camera Connectors |
| M.2 Key M | x4 PCIe Gen3, 2280 |
| M.2 Key M | x2 PCIe Gen3, 2242 |
| M.2 Key E | PCIe (x1), USB 2.0, UART, I2S, and I2C |
| USB | Type A: 4x USB 3.2 Gen2, Type C: 1x for Debug and Device Mode |
| Networking | 1x GbE Connector |
| Display | DisplayPort 1.2 (+MST) |
| microSD slot | UHS-1 cards up to SDR104 mode |
| Others | 40-pin Expansion Header (UART, SPI, I2S, I2C, GPIO), 12-pin button header, 4-pin fan header, DC power jack |
| Dimensions | 100 mm x 79 mm x 30 mm(Height includes feet, carrier board, module, and thermal solution) |
Some additional notes:
- This carrier board has two M.2 Key M slots. One is 2242, which means that it accepts 42mm cards. The other is 2280, which means that it accepts 80 mm cards. All of the M.2 slots are PCIe.
- The USB-C port is upstream facing. The port does not handle power deliver over USB or have display capabilities.
- The USB-C port is upstream facing. The port does not handle power deliver over USB or have display capabilities.
- The 2 MIPI CSI-2 camera connectors are a change from previous generations of Jetsons. The older Jetsons use 15 pin connectors. You will need an adapter cable to connect a 15 pin camera to the 22 pin connector.
- There is a power jack on the board. The board accepts 9-19V, 45 watts total. 2.5mm ID x 5.0mm OD, center positive please.
Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit Specs
The full development kit combines the Jetson Orin Nano module and the reference carrier board. The carrier board mounts to a plastic base. The plastic base holds two PCB antennas which attach to the wireless card which populates the M.2 Key E slot.
Dimensions
The size of the Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit is 103 x 90.5 x 35 mm. It weighs in at 176 grams. If you plan on mounting the Developer Kit on a project, you will most likely not use the plastic base. Just be careful with the wireless card and antennas. Those rascals are easy to detach and very difficult to reattach.
Here are some pics:
Performance
The software provided with the review unit is pre-release. I can tell you that the CPU performance makes the the Orin Nano feel quite a bit faster than the Xavier NX. With that said, there were a little niggles here and there related to the release. This is normal, these will be ironed out by the time the kits begin shipping in mid-April.
One thing I found surprising is how good the video encoding is for a software solution running on two cores of the CPU. The experts over at RidgeRun wrote a quite wonderful article: “Jetson Orin Nano: How to achieve real-time performance for video encoding” discussing the ins and outs of getting good performance.
From the video, here’s the results of benchmarking some models. In frames per second:
| Model | Jetson Orin Nano 8GB |
| PeopleNet (V2.5) | 118 |
| Action Recognition 2D | 366 |
| Action Recognition 3D | 26 |
| LPR Net | 993 |
| Dashcam Net | 405 |
| BodyPose Net | 137 |
In the video was a quick demo of a transformer running on Peoplenet. On an AGX Orin, it runs ~ 30fps. On the Orin Nano it’s a little under 8.
Jetson Orin Modules
Here’s the Jetson Orin module lineup:
There are three different variations of the production modules. Orin Nano is the entry into the Orin line, the Orin NX is mid range. Both of these are in the 260 pin SODIMM form factor. The AGX Orin is the most powerful, top of the line.
Conclusion
My experience with it so far is that it will be a very capable replacement for the Xavier NX. It feels faster in most desktop type of applications. I plan on using it over the next few weeks to get a better feel for the good and bad. My initial impression is that it’s good, and there is consistency with the AGX Orin software. The emulation of the Jetson Orin Nano on the AGX Orin Devkit is surprisingly close to real world performance.
It should be interesting to see how the Jetson ecosystem starts to grow around this offering. I know it will be popular in the education space. The AGX Orin is a little steep on the entry price, and the entry level Jetson Nano doesn’t have the performance we now expect.
Certainly worth checking out.
20 Responses
Very nice.
Now to try to get funding to upgrade class related robots.
Good job Jim.
Thank you for the kind words. NVIDIA makes you a money hunter. Thanks for reading!
Where can I get the Jetson Orin Nano? What I have found is that you have to pr-order.
Thanks,
Brent
The NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kits will be available in April. You can pre-order now and get the first ones when they ship (recommended), or you can wait to buy them from stock next month. Thanks for reading!
I hate that they’ve jacked the price another $100, to $500, now BEFORE THE UNIT EVEN HITS THE STREETS!
Wait! This is not the $400 rectangular block that the Orin Developer has been shown as (for over a year.)
Seems the Orin Nano is a different, more expensive animal than the Orin Developer Kit is? Why would anyone get the Nano over the Orin, for $100 more? Or am I confused? Again?
I’m awaiting the $400 or $600 version of the Orin Developer kit (4 GB versus 8 GB?) They were announced months ago but have they started to ship yet?
I’m not sure what you are comparing here. Since this is the introduction price ($499, $399 EDU), its hard to say that they’ve “jacked up the price”. I’ve added the Orin production modules and their pricing to the article. The Orin Nano is pretty much what was predicted as far as price. The 8GB production model of the Jetson Orin module is $299. Once you add a thermal solution (heat sink fan), carrier board, wireless card and power brick, you figure that’s around $499. I think I originally thought this type of solution would be between $400-600, the price lands in the middle.
Previously NVIDIA subsidized the Devkits and offered them at cost. In other words, the devkits were just about the same price as a production module alone. As an example, the Xavier NX devkits were $399 at introduction, the same price as the production module. That is no longer the case, which probably makes their 3rd party partners happier.
The rectangular version is the AGX Orin. Now that 64GB eMMC is readily available, they’ve added that to the Jetson AGX Orin Developer Kit. It’s a lot different type of machine, much more capable. It’s at the same price as it was at introduction, $1999.
This follows the previous product lineup strategy, with the Orins replacing the Xaviers. The one difference is that there are three flavors of Orins in comparison to the Xaviers 2. Thanks for reading.
By the way, once you understand this product offering it’s easier to beat on NVIDIA for pricing and claim that they are ripping you off. We always enjoy hearing about how you think the products should be priced.
You mention a 100$ EDU discount, I can’t find any information on this anywhere including NVIDIAs website, care to elaborate?
Not sure what to elaborate about here. The education page is at: https://developer.nvidia.com/education-pricing
Typically people apply for the discount once the product begins shipping. A good place to get a more direct answer is on the official NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano forum: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/c/agx-autonomous-machines/jetson-embedded-systems/jetson-orin-nano/632
Thanks for reading!
Just following up here with a link to the relevant topic on the official NVIDIA developer forums, in case someone else with the same question stumbles across this article:
https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/edu-pricing/249040/3
the TL;DR of the matter is:
The “Apply for discount” link on the EDU pricing page on NVIDIAs website is broken, the response from dusty_nv from NVIDIA is:
“we are in the process of setting up the application forms and everything for the EDU discount with the Jetson distributors – please stay tuned, thanks.”
Thanks for the update!
Hi, thank you for the fantastic article, very complete!
One question regarding the DevKit’s USB Type-C: Can it be used as Device Mode to connect a display to it? We have read in this other blog that it allows video carries via DP Alt Mode (https://hothardware.com/reviews/nvidia-jetson-orin-nano-hands-on) and we are not sure if it would work or not.
You are welcome. My understanding is that the USB Type-C port does not support video. You can ask at on the official NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano forum where NVIDIA engineers answer questions: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/c/agx-autonomous-machines/jetson-embedded-systems/jetson-orin-nano/632
Thanks for reading!
I removed the plastic base, but despite my best efforts, also detached the antennas. It looks like they just press on. Is there some trick to reattach the rascals, or just try, try, again?
Does this type of connection have a name? I found the antennas for sale, but no instructions.
Thanks.
The connector presses on. The only tool that I’ve found useful for reattaching them is a lot of swearing. You have to be careful in being too forceful. More than once I’ve try to seat them with more pressure out of frustration, only to ruin the connector. I believe that the connectors are called MHF4 IPEX. Thanks for reading!
Thanks for your reply. I found this video, where they replace the supplied antennas with SMA antennas. I wasn’t really planning on using WIFI or Bluetooth, but since the antennas are disconnected anyway, may as well replace them if I do. There are places on the case I bought to put them, although it seems you have to do some cutting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cqr9R04htc How to Install Jetson Xavier NX and IPEX MHF4 Antennas with Geekworm N100 Metal Case? (Not the same Jetson, but close enough.)
You should either install antennas, or remove the wifi card. Running the wifi card without antennas is generally a bad idea. The radios are designed to run with antennas, and can cause issues without them.
Even if I have wifi and blue-tooth turned off in settings? (It says I am in airplane mode, and displays the airplane icon.)
I do plan on re-installing the antennas at some point, as I may want to use wireless later, and it also bugs me that I pulled the wires off. But removing the card still causes me to have to remove the board from the case, so I may as well install the antennas instead, assuming I did not damage the connectors.
Does anyone know of a good Powe supply for the jetson Orin nano developer board?
This question will depend on where you live in the world. The included power supply with the developer board is 19V @ 2.37A. The connector to the Jetson is 5.5mm OD x 2.5mm ID, center positive. However, the Orin Nano dev kit will run on 9V to 19V, plan on providing 45 watts. Here’s an example of one that would work: https://amzn.to/3QzmMhB
Hope this helps. If you need more help on this particular topic, you should ask on the official NVDIA Jetson Orin Nano forum: https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/c/agx-autonomous-machines/jetson-embedded-systems/jetson-orin-nano/632