The direct answer
Can the 17 records be ranked by TOPS? No. Eight are production modules, two are development platforms and seven are complete computers. Only nine publish a numeric TOPS statement. Of those nine, three state both precision and sparsity; six do not. A system-level headline can also be copied from its module without measuring carrier losses, sensor traffic, thermal throttling or the application.
Does a long hardware lifecycle prove long software support? No. Five exact products publish a hardware availability end date: three Jetson modules and two Raspberry Pi Compute Modules. Qualcomm publishes a longevity date for RB5’s underlying QRB5165 SoC, and Toradex publishes general lifecycle and revision evidence. None of the 17 records publishes a product-specific software support end date in the selected public sources.
Nine records publish numeric TOPS; only three state both precision and sparsity. Eleven publish some power or electrical statement, but seven of those only state input voltage. No complete system publishes a workload-qualified whole-system power result in the selected evidence, and no record completes RCI’s eight-field lifecycle-performance disclosure matrix.
Five different boundaries sit behind “AI performance”
| RCI boundary | Records | What is public | What remains unknown |
|---|---|---|---|
| INT8 sparse only | 1 | Sparse INT8 theoretical peak only. | Dense peak and application throughput. |
| INT8 sparse + dense | 2 | Both sparse and dense INT8 theoretical peaks. | Application latency, accuracy, memory pressure and sustained thermal behavior. |
| Numeric TOPS; conditions incomplete | 6 | A numeric TOPS headline without both precision and sparsity. | Precision, sparsity, calculation and workload comparability. |
| Accelerator architecture; no TOPS | 2 | Named GPU, DSP or tensor accelerator. | A directly comparable throughput number. |
| No numeric AI claim | 6 | No module- or system-level numeric AI claim in the selected source. | A directly comparable throughput number. |
The two Orin Super-mode records publish sparse and dense INT8 values: 157/78 TOPS for Orin NX 16GB and 67/33 TOPS for Orin Nano 8GB. AGX Orin 64GB publishes 275 sparse INT8 TOPS without a paired dense value in the selected table. The other six numeric statements—2, 2.3, 100, 100, 157 and 275 TOPS—do not state both precision and sparsity beside the system or module claim.
RCI preserves architecture-only claims for Qualcomm RB3 and RB5 instead of manufacturing a TOPS number. It also preserves six records with no numeric AI claim at the exact audited boundary. “Not published” is not zero; it is a warning that a ranking would require assumptions.
The seventeen hardware and claim boundaries
| Record | Hardware boundary | Selected AI claim | Power evidence | Software evidence | Availability evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin 64GB | Production module P3701 production module; developer-kit carrier and complete system loads are outside this boundary. | 275 INT8 sparse TOPS A theoretical sparse INT8 peak, not dense throughput or a robot workload benchmark. | Module power modes 15–60 W configured module power modes; carrier, storage, sensors and peripherals are additional. | JetPack / CUDA / Isaac are named, but the 275-TOPS table is not tied to one exact public software image. | Exact product date Commercial Jetson AGX Orin 64GB module listed as available through January 2032. |
| Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 | Production module Compute Module 5; RAM, eMMC and wireless are ordered variants and connectors depend on the carrier board. | No dedicated module NPU or TOPS claim in the selected product specification General CPU/GPU capability must not be converted into a synthetic TOPS number. | No selected power result The selected product page gives the electrical platform but no workload-qualified module consumption. | Raspberry Pi OS follows a staggered Debian release cycle; no CM5-specific image or support-end date is attached to the hardware commitment. | Exact product date Compute Module 5 will remain in production until at least January 2036. |
| Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Platform | Development platform QRB5165-based robotics development platform; it is not interchangeable with a production SoC or every third-party carrier. | Hexagon 698 DSP with HVX and Tensor Accelerator; no comparable TOPS value in the cited brief Accelerator names do not supply a precision-, sparsity- or workload-qualified throughput number. | No selected power result The selected platform brief does not publish a workload-qualified board power envelope. | Ubuntu 18.04, Yocto Dunfell, Linux 4.19 and ROS 2 are the document baseline, not proof of a maintained current image. | Underlying SoC date only Qualcomm lists the underlying QRB5165 SoC in its longevity program through September 2035; this does not guarantee RB5 development-board supply. |
| Advantech MIC-733-AO | Complete system Configurable industrial computer using AGX Orin 32GB or 64GB modules and optional camera expansion. | Up to 275 TOPS The system datasheet does not state precision or sparsity beside the headline and does not provide a whole-system benchmark. | Input voltage only 9–36 VDC system input range; no selected workload consumption or peripheral budget. | No exact supported system image is tied to the selected performance statement. | Not published No MIC-733-AO system availability end date is published in the selected datasheet. |
| AAEON BOXER-8641AI | Complete system Fanless system offered with materially different AGX Orin 32GB and 64GB module configurations. | No system-level numeric AI claim in the selected specification table The ordered module can carry a separate accelerator headline, but RCI does not silently attach it to every system configuration. | Input voltage only 12 VDC system input; no selected workload consumption. | No exact supported system image or JetPack release is published in the selected specification table. | Not published No BOXER-8641AI system availability end date is published in the selected source. |
| Seeed Studio reComputer Industrial J4012 | Complete system Industrial carrier and enclosure around a Jetson Orin NX 16GB module. | 100 TOPS The family table does not state precision or sparsity and predates later module Super-mode headlines. | Input voltage only 12–24 VDC system input; module mode, carrier loss and peripheral loads are not a workload power result. | No exact supported system image is attached to the selected 100-TOPS family-table value. | Not published No J4012 complete-system availability end date is published in the selected manual. |
| Toradex Verdin iMX8M Plus Quad 4GB WB IT | Production module Exact 4GB wireless industrial-temperature module; carrier-board connectors and losses are excluded. | 2.3 TOPS NPU The selected datasheet does not state precision, sparsity or an application benchmark beside the NPU headline. | Approximate module consumption Approximately 1.5–6.3 W module consumption; workload, carrier and peripherals remain additional. | For compatible second-generation Verdin combinations, Toradex publishes BSP/Torizon support floors; this is not a software end date. | General lifecycle program only Toradex states a general 10+ year computer-module lifecycle but no exact end date for this module in the selected sources. |
| NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX 16GB | Production module Production Orin NX 16GB module; carrier, thermal solution and flashing configuration remain separate. | 157 sparse / 78 dense INT8 TOPS JetPack 6.2 Super-mode theoretical peaks; neither number is application throughput. | Module power modes 10 / 15 / 25 / 40 W and MAXN SUPER reference modes; the 40 W and uncapped modes require the new flashing configuration. | JetPack 6.2 and the new flashing configuration are explicitly required for the cited Super-mode table. | Exact product date Commercial Jetson Orin NX 16GB module listed as available through January 2032. |
| Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 | Production module Compute Module 4; RAM, eMMC, radio and temperature options are ordered variants. | No dedicated module NPU or TOPS claim in the selected product specification External accelerators and carrier designs are separate component records, not implicit CM4 performance. | No selected power result No workload-qualified module consumption is selected in the component evidence. | Raspberry Pi OS follows a moving Debian-derived release cycle without a CM4-specific software support end date. | Exact product date Compute Module 4 will remain in production until at least January 2034. |
| Toradex Verdin AM62 Quad 2GB WB IT | Production module Exact 2GB wireless industrial-temperature module; carrier pin multiplexing remains outside the module boundary. | No dedicated NPU or numeric TOPS claim in the selected module specification The real-time cores and PRUSS are control resources, not a synthetic neural-accelerator TOPS value. | Input voltage only 3.135–5.5 V module input range; this is not module energy consumption under a workload. | Toradex publishes BSP 6.4.0 / Easy Installer 6.4.0 or newer for listed compatible AM62 combinations. | General lifecycle program only Toradex states a general 10+ year computer-module lifecycle but no exact module end date in the selected sources. |
| AAEON BOXER-8651AI | Complete system Fanless system family offered with Orin NX 8GB or 16GB modules. | No numeric TOPS claim in the selected system datasheet The orderable module variants have different accelerator ceilings; RCI does not attach one module headline to the family. | Input voltage only 12–24 VDC system input; no selected workload consumption. | No exact supported JetPack or system-image release is published in the selected datasheet. | Not published No BOXER-8651AI system availability end date is published in the selected datasheet. |
| NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8GB | Production module Production Orin Nano 8GB module; developer kit, carrier, power supply and thermal solution are separate. | 67 sparse / 33 dense INT8 TOPS JetPack 6.2 Super-mode theoretical peaks, not application throughput. | Module power modes 15 / 25 W and MAXN SUPER reference modes; the new flashing configuration and adequate thermal path are required. | JetPack 6.2 and the Super flashing configuration are explicitly tied to the selected performance table. | Exact product date Commercial Jetson Orin Nano 8GB module listed as available through January 2032. |
| Qualcomm Robotics RB3 Platform | Development platform Original SDA845-based RB3 platform, not RB3 Gen 2. | Hexagon 685 DSP and Adreno 630 GPU; no comparable TOPS value in the cited brief Accelerator architecture is preserved without inventing a numeric cross-platform score. | No selected power result No workload-qualified platform power envelope is published in the selected sources. | The current page states Linux and ROS support without an exact maintained image or version floor. | Not published No original RB3 platform availability end date is published in the selected sources. |
| Advantech MIC-713-OX | Complete system Configurable Orin NX 8GB/16GB system with optional GMSL expansion. | Current datasheet: up to 157 TOPS; current product page: up to 100 TOPS The two current official values are retained as a conflict; neither system source states precision or sparsity beside the headline. | Input voltage only 9–36 VDC system input; no selected workload consumption or optional-camera power budget. | The 157-TOPS datasheet value is conditioned on Super mode and JetPack 6.2 or above. | Not published No MIC-713-OX complete-system availability end date is published in the selected sources. |
| AAEON BOXER-8646AI | Complete system AGX Orin 32GB machine-vision computer with twelve PoE camera ports. | No numeric system AI claim in the selected manual The installed module identity is published, but the manual does not turn it into a system benchmark. | Input voltage only 19–24 VDC system input; no selected whole-system workload consumption or aggregate PoE budget. | JetPack 5.0 or later is the manual baseline; it does not identify the exact currently maintained system image. | Not published No BOXER-8646AI system availability end date is published in the selected manual. |
| Seeed Studio reComputer Mini J4012 | Complete system Compact carrier and enclosure around an Orin NX 16GB module with bundled NVMe storage. | 100 TOPS The guide retains the pre-Super headline and does not state precision or sparsity beside it. | No selected power result No workload-qualified whole-system power statement is selected in the cited guide. | JetPack 6.0 is the guide baseline, but the 100-TOPS wording is not explicitly generated or validated by that image. | Not published No reComputer Mini J4012 system availability end date is published in the selected guide. |
| Toradex Verdin iMX95 Hexa 8GB WB IT | Production module Exact 8GB wireless industrial-temperature configuration; hardware revision remains a material sub-boundary. | 2 TOPS NPU The NXP product headline does not state precision, sparsity or an exact model benchmark. | No selected power result No selected workload-qualified power result is attached to the 2-TOPS headline. | Torizon and Toradex BSP paths are named, but no exact support end date is published for the audited revision chain. | Revision chain only V1.0A is EOL; V1.0B, V1.0C and V1.1A carry dated release or planned-release entries, but no final model end date. |
Hardware boundary is not a cosmetic label. A production module exposes lanes and power rails; the carrier decides which connectors exist. A development platform can use a long-lived SoC without promising development-board supply. A complete computer adds storage, cooling, power conversion, camera interfaces and a vendor image—but its module’s theoretical peak still does not become a whole-system benchmark.
Input voltage is not operating power
Eleven records publish a power or electrical statement. Four are usable as a module operating boundary: three Jetson power-mode tables and Toradex’s approximate 1.5–6.3 W module consumption for the audited iMX8M Plus configuration. Seven only publish an input-voltage range or nominal input. A 9–36 VDC label says what supply may be connected; it does not state watts consumed by perception, planning and control workloads.
All seven complete-system records lack a selected workload-qualified whole-system power result. Six publish input voltage; the reComputer Mini J4012 record does not publish a selected power result. None attaches sustained compute, storage, camera traffic, PoE load, fan behavior, ambient temperature and throttling to one reproducible measurement.
| Complete system | Published power boundary | Whole-system workload power |
|---|---|---|
| Advantech MIC-733-AO | 9–36 VDC system input range; no selected workload consumption or peripheral budget. | Not published in selected evidence |
| AAEON BOXER-8641AI | 12 VDC system input; no selected workload consumption. | Not published in selected evidence |
| Seeed Studio reComputer Industrial J4012 | 12–24 VDC system input; module mode, carrier loss and peripheral loads are not a workload power result. | Not published in selected evidence |
| AAEON BOXER-8651AI | 12–24 VDC system input; no selected workload consumption. | Not published in selected evidence |
| Advantech MIC-713-OX | 9–36 VDC system input; no selected workload consumption or optional-camera power budget. | Not published in selected evidence |
| AAEON BOXER-8646AI | 19–24 VDC system input; no selected whole-system workload consumption or aggregate PoE budget. | Not published in selected evidence |
| Seeed Studio reComputer Mini J4012 | No workload-qualified whole-system power statement is selected in the cited guide. | Not published in selected evidence |
Hardware availability and software maintenance are separate clocks
NVIDIA’s lifecycle table lists AGX Orin 64GB, Orin NX 16GB and Orin Nano 8GB modules through January 2032. It does not give those exact modules a JetPack support end date. Compute Module 5 is committed through at least January 2036 and Compute Module 4 through at least January 2034; the moving Debian-derived Raspberry Pi OS channel does not publish a matching module-specific support end.
Qualcomm’s longevity catalogue lists the underlying QRB5165 SoC through September 2035, but that is not an RB5 development-board, Ubuntu-image or SDK maintenance commitment. Toradex’s iMX95 revision history already marks V1.0A EOL while listing successor revisions. That is useful revision evidence, but it is not a model-wide final availability date or a Torizon/BSP support-end date.
Three performance claims are explicitly tied to a software prerequisite: Orin NX and Orin Nano require JetPack 6.2 plus the Super flashing configuration, while Advantech’s current MIC-713-OX datasheet conditions its 157-TOPS value on Super mode and JetPack 6.2 or later. Co-publishing a software name and a TOPS number is not enough; RCI only counts a tie when the source makes the dependency explicit.
The eight-field disclosure matrix
“Published” means the selected source bundle states a usable value at the audited hardware boundary. “Partial” means a family program, moving release channel or underlying-component commitment exists but does not close the exact product field. For records without a numeric TOPS claim, precision, sparsity and software-to-TOPS fields are not applicable rather than failed.
| Disclosure field | Published | Partial | Not published | N/A |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exact module / platform / system boundary | 17 / 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Precision for a numeric TOPS claim | 3 / 17 | 0 | 6 | 8 |
| Sparsity for a numeric TOPS claim | 3 / 17 | 0 | 6 | 8 |
| Operating power or module mode—not input voltage | 4 / 17 | 0 | 13 | 0 |
| Usable versioned software baseline | 6 / 17 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
| Software version tied to the AI claim | 3 / 17 | 0 | 6 | 8 |
| Availability end date at the same hardware boundary | 5 / 17 | 4 | 8 | 0 |
| Product-specific software support end date | 0 / 17 | 0 | 17 | 0 |
Every record has an exact module, platform or system boundary. The disclosure rate collapses after that: three numeric claims publish both precision and sparsity, four records publish module operating modes or consumption, five publish an exact hardware availability end date and zero publish a product-specific software support end date. Therefore zero records complete the matrix.
One independent workload result does not validate a TOPS headline
Only Jetson Orin Nano 8GB carries a selected exact-model independent workload result in catalog v0.4.5. The paper reports 31.8 J for CUDA and 28.3 J for SYCL across four HeCBench AI tests on a 15 W board using JetPack 5.1.2. It is useful evidence about those implementations and that software/hardware state. It is not an independent verification of the later 67 sparse / 33 dense INT8 TOPS Super-mode claim.
The other sixteen records remain manufacturer-source-only for this audit. That does not make their specifications false; it defines the evidence boundary and the next test to run.
What to request before selecting a robot main computer
- Identity: module SKU, memory, hardware revision, carrier, storage, thermal solution and complete-system ordering code.
- Workload: model, input shape, batch, precision, sparsity, compiler, runtime, latency percentile, accuracy delta and sensor concurrency.
- Power: wall-input or rail measurement, idle and sustained workload watts, peripheral and PoE loads, ambient temperature, fan state and throttling.
- Software: exact BSP, kernel, OS image, CUDA/NPU runtime, ROS distribution, driver and security-update channel.
- Lifecycle: hardware last-order date, successor and migration path, supported image list, security-fix policy and product-specific software end date.
- Robot integration: camera lanes actually routed, CAN/EtherCAT implementation, time synchronization, storage endurance, brownout behavior and safety/control partitioning.
- Validation: rerun the real perception-planning-control pipeline on the exact production configuration instead of accepting TOPS as a proxy.
Method and limitations
RCI audited the seventeen records already in the robot-main-compute comparison group. The cutoff is 2026-08-10. A numeric TOPS claim is counted only when the selected exact-record evidence prints a number; accelerator names do not become synthetic TOPS. Precision and sparsity are counted only when stated beside or explicitly governing that number. Input voltage is preserved as electrical evidence but does not count as operating power.
An exact hardware availability date must apply at the audited product boundary. An underlying SoC program, a general “10+ year” policy and a revision history earn partial disclosure, not an exact product date. A product-specific software support end date must identify the maintained image, BSP, SDK or security-fix window for that product; none was found. This is a public-evidence audit, not an exhaustive market census, performance lab test, safety assessment or recommendation.
Download the record-level data
Download the immutable research dataset as JSON or CSV. Stable current aliases are /data/research/robot-edge-compute-claims.json and /data/research/robot-edge-compute-claims.csv. The source component evidence remains in catalog v0.4.5 JSON and its claim CSV.
Suggested citation: Robot Component Index, “Robot Edge Compute: 17 Records, 9 Numeric TOPS Claims, 0 Software Support End Dates,” RCI 018, research dataset v0.1.0 and component catalog v0.4.5, 2026-08-10.