Jetson Software Roadmap for 2H-2021 and 2022

Robotics & Edge Computing Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson Nano
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NVIDIA continuously invests in JetPack and regularly ships software updates to enable performance improvements, new capabilities, and support for new modules and developer kits. In this announcement, we provide details about the current software roadmap for 2H-2021 and 2022. Note that this plan is subject to change.

JetPack 4.6 is our next production release, currently scheduled for July 2021. It will bring updates to the CUDA, cuDNN, and TensorRT compute stack as well as a feature-rich BSP update with L4T 32.6 based on Ubuntu 18.04. New capabilities will be included for over the air (OTA) software updates, security, bootloader, multimedia, camera, and cloud-native technologies. JetPack 4.6 will also add support for Triton Inference Server with TensorFlow 2.x, TensorFlow 1.x, TensorRT, and PyTorch backends.

JetPack 4.6 will be the last major release for Jetson Nano, Jetson Nano 2GB, Jetson TX1, and Jetson TX2 series (Jetson TX2 NX, Jetson TX2, Jetson TX2 4GB and Jetson TX2i). After JetPack 4.6, the JetPack 4 codeline will transition into a sustaining mode with continued software support via JetPack 4.x releases for security updates and critical bug fixes.

JetPack 5.0 will be the next major release, and will include an upgrade to LTS Kernel 5.10 and Ubuntu 20.04. Other noteworthy changes include support for UEFI (replacing CBoot), support for OP-TEE (replacing Trusty as the trusted execution environment), and an upgraded compute stack including CUDA 11. The Developer Preview of JetPack 5.0 is planned for Q1-2022 and the production release is planned for 2H-2022.

JetPack 5 will be our new feature codeline supporting Jetson Xavier NX and Jetson AGX Xavier series, as well as future Jetson products including Jetson Orin in 2022 and Jetson Nano Next in 2023.

NVIDIA plans to offer greater flexibility to customers for selection of Linux kernel versions and third-party Linux distributions on Jetson by increasingly upstreaming Jetson support to the Linux kernel and by collaborating with the Jetson ecosystem. We plan to provide a developer preview of this flexibility in 2022.

Please refer to Jetson Roadmap page for details

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Hi, will RPI HQ Camera be supported out-of-box for Jetson nano 4GB version in this upcoming release?

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@xijiaqi2016 , yes we are planning to support IMX477 out of box with Jetson Nano 4GB with JetPack 4.6. Note though, that the Rasb Pi IMX477 will need hardware modificaiton to use with Jetson Nano 4GB (no hadrware modification needed for Jetson Nano 2GB), or other option is to use the Arducam IMX477 camera

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Hi, do you mean that for Jetson Nano (4Gb) Ubuntu 20.04 will not be supported? If so, why? is it a commercial choice or technical reason?

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I was hoping for 20.04 on Nano, but if that’s not in the cards, I guess that’s that. Appreciate the roadmap in any case.

This is very cool.

I would personally really appreciate IMX477 “just working” out of the box. #1 feature request for me. The third party driver situation is not ideal, mostly because nobody except Google uses DKMS. Manual kernel patching or fragile binary packages are un-fun.

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Thanks for your reply. I recently checked Jetson Nano Camera Module Hardware Design Guide (v1.2) and found that 2GB and 4GB versions seem to share the same pin-out electrical characteristics


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continuously ? at today the netson nano still run on ubuntu 18.04,a distro that reached the end of life. I don’t agree.

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It is very bad news for Jetson Nano. I hope Nvidia will change his mind and bring Jetpack 5.0 to Nano and TX2.

Alain

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EOL for 18.04 is April 2023. It’s an LTS (“Long Term Support”) release.

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Screenshot_2021-05-27_18-49-01
Screenshot_2021-05-27_18-49-011920×1080 151 KB

yes,but there are bugs that they won’t fix even if it ends its life on 2023. just because its old and it has been surpassed by 5 releases which “works better” (19.04 ; 19.10 ; 20.04 ; 20.10 and 21.04) and that deserves more attention. how many bugs they won’t fix ? and nvidia want sticks on this “won’t fix” release for how long time ?

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Well, you’re mostly guaranteed security updates, which is what really counts. Features are frozen. Bug fixes are usually backported but if it would take too much work it might not be. All of this is on Canonical, not Nvidia in any case.

All that being said, if everything was open source the community could port everything to 20.04. Binary blobs, typical on arm though they may be, only make things more difficult for everybody IMO. Yes, there’s a legit gripe about planned obsolescence here. Please, Nvidia, open source all the things even if code quality is meh.

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Converting code from closed to open implies great commercial and business strategies changes. Nvidia could,instead,update the operating system and the software on top of it more often,to fight better against the software obsolescence.

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Hello community,

I‘m new to this Forum since we are just in the beginning of developing an custom IPTV System based on the Nano.
So I‘m quite disappointed to read about that new roadmap.

If you write EOL is April 2023 for that Kernel what happens after that date? Will there be no more updates - even Security related - then?

If so does it mean the Nano is a dead end for that kind of development?

Thanks for helping me out.
Tim

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That’s EOL for Ubuntu 18.04 (the rootfs). I am guessing the kernel will only get security updates until the EOL for the Nano itself. Says 2025 for availability here:

I’m wondering how they plan on maintaining (if they do) past the LTS EOL. I mean it’s not a huge benefit to provide updates for the kernel if userland is out of date.

Edit: apparently 18.04 will get security updates until 2028:

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A change in strategy isn’t always terrible. Look at how great it’s turning out for MS. They’ve gone from most hated to most loved and all it cost them was a change in leadership.

One way of looking at opening things up is it’ll let the community do at least some of the work for you. It’s also more environmentally friendly, with less e-waste as devices can be maintained for longer.

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NVIDIA will continue releasing JetPack 4.6.x updates supporting Jetson Nano, Jetson Nano 2GB, Jetson TX1, Jetson TX2 series, Jetson TX2 NX, Jetson Xavier NX and Jetson AGX Xavier series. These releases will have critical bug fixes and security updates including the kernel and NVIDIA components.
For the future, we are working towards enabling developers and customers to bring different kernel and distributions on Jetson for greater flexibility.

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