DJI's Manifold Gives Drones The Power Of A PC

DJI’s has released a new product called the Manifold, which is a high-performance PC that can be used by developers to turn drones and quadcopters into "truly intelligent flying robots."

The Manifold is priced at $499 and its design is like that of a small desktop PC, but in place of attaching it to a monitor, users have to strap it to the drone. To use the Manifold, users will also need DJI’s recently released Matrice 100 drone, which is sold for a whopping $3,299.

With these high costs, do you need the Manifold?

Well, the Manifold is probably not for the average drone flier and is more useful for developers as it will permit them to create "more powerful professional applications for use with aerial technology," according to DJI.

"With the Manifold, we are entering a new era of smarter, faster and more powerful aerial platforms. Manifold opens up for aerial and ground technology to intelligently work together to solve complex problems," said Michael Perry, DJI director of strategic partnerships.

When using this, developers can attach a variety of devices like geographical surveying equipment, infrared cameras and atmospheric research devices. This way those on the ground can receive information in near real-time that is collected and analyzed by the Manifold in the air.

The Ubuntu-based Manifold works on the Nvidia Tegra K1 quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 processor. It is equipped with 192 GPU cores and can hit clock speeds of about 2.2GHz. DJI also features Onboard SDK and compatibility with third-party sensors.

DJI claims that the Manifold is "optimized for power efficiency with a peak power consumption of approximately 15 W, or one fourth of that of a typical laptop."

Mark Murphy, Canonical's vice president of device sales and global alliances, also added, "in pushing technology beyond the limits of possibilities and paving the way for creators, makers and developers."

The company says that the Manifold will start shipping from November 15 and will come with 5 years of maintenance and support for multi-touch devices and HiDPI screens.