As Artificial Intelligence (AI) reshapes our world, Farnell, the Development Distributor, along with element14, an Avnet community, are expanding the AI products and resources available to help engineers develop new solutions leveraging the technology. Opportunities for engineers include availability of the BeagleBone AI single board computer and online resources to help overcome the complexity, cost and power challenges of developing for AI.

The BeagleBone AI, one of the newest AI products available from Farnell, provides a fast track solution for embedded machine learning. The single board computer facilitates everyday automation for industrial, commercial and home applications and allows developers to have their designs up and running within five minutes. You can read more about the BeagleBone AI board here.

Enabling element14 Community members to learn the fundamentals of AI in a free online course, the new AI Essentials Course begins with an overview and history of AI, and goes on to cover algorithms, the Bayes Theorem, machine and deep learning, and typical AI applications. The DIY course gives makers and engineers the tools they need to further incorporate AI into their designs.

“Artificial Intelligence, from autonomous cars to ‘lights out’ autonomous factories used to be reserved for science fiction, but the technology is becoming increasingly popular and more readily available every day,” said Cliff Ortmeyer, Global Head of Technical Marketing for Farnell.

Dianne Kibbey, Global Head of the element14 Community added: “We are committed to giving our customers and community members access to the latest AI products and resources, including free training, projects and tools to support them throughout their AI design journey and grow their careers.”

Additional AI offerings from Farnell and element14 include:

• AI Configurator and AI Resource Page: An interactive tool, the AI Configurator enables engineers to quickly determine the most appropriate products and solutions for their AI projects. New products such as the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Computer, Ultra96 V2 development board, and BeagleBone AI are incorporated into the tool, ensuring engineers are at the cutting edge of AI technology. The AI Configurator is part of Farnell’s AI Resource Page, a dependable resource for makers looking to expand their knowledge.

• New element14 Artificial Intelligence Page: Features all of the latest element14 content around AI including a range of member projects, Tech Spotlights, blogs and products. This area will also feature the element14 Presents weekly video series, with videos focussing on the new BeagleBone AI. Interested community members can sign up to receive updates when new AI related content is added.

Farnell is the only high service distributor with a dedicated AI space and a community of 650,000 members with an ongoing focus on AI applications. To learn more, visit Farnell’s AI Resource Page and the element14 Community.

Premier Farnell, the Development Distributor, announces the launch of a dedicated Artificial Intelligence (AI) online resource on its website. The new pages cover a variety of topics ranging from basic explanations of AI, and different types of AI applications, to descriptions of specific AI products including several ranges that are exclusive to Premier Farnell.

Today, AI-driven analytics and real-time insights are helping industries transform their businesses in diverse sectors from logistics and healthcare to automotive and manufacturing. Premier Farnell’s new AI technology pages will help customers to learn more about AI, explore unique AI-specific product ranges, and access support to choose the best solutions to meet their project requirements.

A key element of the Premier Farnell AI offering is the AI Configurator: an interactive tool that allows engineers to quickly determine the most appropriate products and solutions for their AI projects. It identifies the various development boards, sensors and software that best meet the needs of the inputted application from a wide range of vendors. This enables users to select the most suitable products with confidence and obtain optimum results faster, speeding up development without the need for unnecessary and often time-consuming research.

In addition, new AI products that are exclusively from Premier Farnell include:

• Smartedge Agile: Exclusive to Premier Farnell, an end-to-end IoT solution to deliver AI and security at the edge. The Smartedge Agile device is a certified hardware solution embedded with a full software stack featuring edge intelligence.

• Ultra 96: Exclusive to Premier Farnell, a platform to simplify machine learning, Ultra96 is an Arm-based Xilinx Zynq UltraScale MPSoc development board based on the Linaro 96 board specification.

“As AI technology is still at a relatively early stage in terms of its potential applications and market penetration, the scope is wide open for customers to explore various possibilities and develop new products and ideas”, says Cliff Ortmeyer, Global Head of Technology Product Marketing and Solutions Development at Premier Farnell. “Our new AI technology pages will provide a valuable resource that users and developers can use as a starting point for their designs.”

AI technology pages and can be found on the Farnell website in EMEA, Newark website in the Americas and element14 website in Asia Pacific.

Premier Farnell, the Development Distributor, has launched an AI Configurator tool that allows engineers to quickly select the most appropriate development solution for their artificial intelligence (AI) projects.

Featuring products available from Premier Farnell, the new configurator enables users to identify the development boards associated add-on board, accessories and software that best meet their needs from a wide range of vendors. This ensures that they work on a board that provides the optimum support they require, speeding up development without the need for unnecessary and time-consuming research.

“Engineers are often only aware of products from a limited number of vendors, but by offering them a selection of solutions from the widest possible spectrum of suppliers, the AI Configurator tool means that engineers don’t need to be experts on products from every vendor to ensure they are using the best technology to support their projects”, says Ralf Buehler Senior Vice-President, Sales & Marketing, at Premier Farnell: “This is the first AI configuration and selector tool to cover multiple vendors and allows users to buy the product quickly and easily – it should be the first place that engineers go to when starting or considering a project using AI.”

The tool allows searches for AI applications in the following sectors:

• Predictive maintenance
• Voice recognition
• Object or human recognition
• Motion recognition
• Machine learning

Engineers can then select the sensors they need from:

• Environmental sensing (heat, pressure etc.)
• Motion sensing
• Proximity sensing
• Audio sensing
• Image sensing

The AI configurator tool also allows engineers to select long- or short-range wireless communications and dynamically changes the options available, so users can always see which combinations of features are available and which are not.

Following product identification and selection, the AI Configurator tool provides a link directly to the selected products on Premier Farnell's sites, thereby making the buying process quick and easy. The tool also provides links to additional relevant resources and content available throughout the sites.

The AI Configurator will be demonstrated at the Farnell element14 stand at electronica 2018, Hall C5.101 (Munich, 10-13 November) and can be accessed here.