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EDGE AI · SOFTWARE

What Is NVIDIA JetPack?

NVIDIA JetPack is the software development kit for the Jetson platform. It provides the operating system (Linux for Tegra, based on Ubuntu) plus the AI, computer-vision, and multimedia libraries — CUDA, cuDNN, and TensorRT — that let a Jetson run GPU-accelerated AI. The same JetPack runs across the Jetson range.

01

The Short Answer

JetPack is the software stack for Jetson. It bundles the operating system and the libraries an edge AI application needs, so a Jetson module arrives able to run GPU-accelerated inference rather than as a bare board. It is what turns Jetson silicon into a usable AI computer on the software side.

02

What JetPack Includes

JetPack provides Linux for Tegra (L4T), an Ubuntu-based OS tuned for Jetson, together with CUDA for GPU computing, cuDNN and TensorRT for deep-learning acceleration, and libraries for cameras, video, and computer vision. A given JetPack release is tied to a Linux for Tegra version, which is why driver and software compatibility is checked against the JetPack release a module is flashed with.

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    GPU acceleration CUDA and TensorRT are what make real-time AI on the edge practical.
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    One stack The same JetPack runs from Orin Nano to Thor, so applications move across the range.
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    Versioning Each JetPack maps to an L4T release; drivers and modules must match it.
03

JetPack and the Hardware

Because JetPack is tied to a Linux for Tegra version, the software and the module generation have to line up. We flash and configure the right JetPack image for the module and the application, so the platform ships ready to run. Our full guide to NVIDIA JetPack and the Jetson software stack covers it in depth.