NVIDIA announces the Jetson TK1 dev-kit, calls it the world's first mobile supercomputer

Wish you had your own personal supercomputer? Soon, you'll be able to buy one -- well, sort of. At its GPU Technology conference today, NVIDIA announced the Jetson TK1, a $192 Tegra K1-based development kit built on the same architecture that powers the Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Haung describes it as "the world's tiniest little supercomputer," noting that it's capable of running anything the Titan can run, but at a much slower pace.

The kit is designed for use in advanced robotics, autonomous cars and computers attempting to simulate human recognition of physical objects, but during a post-announcement briefing, NVIDIA beamed at the suggestion that builders might use it in quirky maker projects. Joking aside, however, they clarified that Jetson is a higher-grade board than you'll find in Arduinos or the Raspberry Pi -- it can push 326 gigaflops, and is far better suited to driving drones, ultrasound machines and self-driving vehicles. Still, at $192, we wouldn't be surprised to see a few Jetson-based projects pop up at the next MakerFaire.