AVerMedia QL501 Qualcomm QCS5430 (Dragonwing) Arm Single Board Computer with GbE and 4G/5G M.2 Slot

Smart city sensors, retail signage and kiosks often need local video analytics from a small, low-power board that a design team can build into its own housing. The AVerMedia QL501 is a single board computer for that job, built around the Qualcomm Dragonwing QCS5430 with I/O compatible with Raspberry Pi 5 expansion. If you would rather start from an enclosed unit, the QL501 Box PC puts the same board in a fanless chassis, and both belong to the QL501 series.

AVerMedia rates the QCS5430 at around 3.5 INT8 TOPS dense, which suits lightweight detection, counting and classification models running alongside the application itself. Memory is 4 GB LPDDR4X with 64 GB UFS 2.x storage and a microSD slot for logs or media. Two 4-lane MIPI CSI-2 camera inputs on 22-pin FPC connectors bring in local cameras, and USB cameras are supported too. Where a model needs more headroom, the QL601 steps up to the QCS6490 at 12.5 TOPS with 8 GB of memory and onboard Wi-Fi 6E.

For screens, the QL501 has HDMI 2.0 at 3840 x 2160 and 60 Hz, DisplayPort at 1920 x 1080 and 60 Hz, and a 4-lane MIPI DSI connector for an attached panel. Networking is one GbE port on RJ45, with an M.2 Key B socket and Micro SIM slot for an optional 4G or 5G module. There are 2x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a USB Type-C port for flashing the BSP, a mic-in/line-out jack and a 40-pin header with GPIO, UART, SPI, I2C and PWM. A PCIe 2.0 FPC connector and wafers for RTC, fan, UART and a PoE HAT cover expansion.

Power comes in through a screw terminal accepting 9-20 V DC, with an optional 12 V adapter, and cooling is by an optional heatsink or fan to suit the enclosure. AVerMedia lists Windows 11 IoT and Ubuntu 20.04 (by request), with CE, FCC, KC and VCCI marks and RoHS. We supply the QL501 with the operating system loaded, any optional cellular module and antennas fitted, and the board tested before it ships.