NXP Semiconductors has introduced a brand new vary of application-class processors within the i.MX household, the i.MX 95 — aiming to ship, the corporate claims, “protected, safe, and scalable AI” on the edge.
“The i.MX 95 household brings unparalleled options and efficiency to markets like automotive and industrial the place safety and security are key,” says NXP’s Rafael Sotomayor of the corporate’s newest software processor vary. “The i.MX 95 brings collectively NXP eIQ Neutron NPU [Neural Processing Unit], Arm Mali graphics, built-in heterogeneous security area, and networking capabilities to create a really distinctive resolution. Combining our deep experience in purposeful security with AI acceleration, excessive efficiency CPU cores, and high-throughput connectivity, NXP is creating the usual for a brand new era of protected and safe edge platforms.”
NXP’s newest i.MX chip packs in as much as six software processors, a real-time microcontroller, and a devoted “security” microcontroller, plus ML acceleration as well. (📷: NXP)
On the coronary heart of the i.MX 95 is an up-to-six-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor cluster with floating-point unit and NEON acceleration, supported by a real-time Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller with floating-point unit, nested vector interrupt controller (NVIC), and reminiscence safety unit (MPU.) Alongside these is what NXP calls the “low-power real-time area,” which incorporates system management {hardware}, connectivity, and one other processor — this time an Arm Cortex-M33 devoted to security duties. They’re joined by an EdgeLock safe enclave, which incorporates every part from a real {hardware} random quantity generator and cryptographic {hardware} to tamper detection capabilities and a safe clock.
For on-device machine studying workloads, the i.MX 95 contains NXP’s eIQ Neutron neural processing unit (NPU) accelerator. Designed to help “most neural community varieties” together with convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recurrent neural networks (RNNs), temporal convolutional networks (TCNs), and transformers, the accelerator helps a picture sign processor (ISP) optimized for machine imaginative and prescient purposes — together with excessive dynamic vary (HDR) help from two exposures, de-noising and edge enhancement algorithms, and help for 2 areas of curiosity.
For connectivity, the chip contains I2C, I3C, UART, USART, SPI, and CAN-FD buses, contains two MIPI CSI four-lane and one MIPI DSI four-lane connections for cameras and shows, one eight-lane LVDS video output that may be cut up into two four-lane outputs, two gigabit Ethernet and one 10-gig-Ethernet connections all with time-sensitive networking (TSN) help, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, two PCI Categorical Gen 3.0 lanes, an eight-channel microphone enter, and help for LPDDR5 or LPDDR4X exterior reminiscence.
NXP is hoping to see the components used in every single place from the sensible dwelling to industrial automation and automotive. (📷: NXP)
NXP’s segmented design has a key function: utilizing the corporate’s “Vitality Flex” structure, it is attainable to allow and disable varied sections of the chip independently, together with turning off the application-class processors completely whereas leaving the real-time security area working and energetic. That is key for the markets NXP is hoping to hit with its newest chips: automotive and industrial, the place security and safety are key, plus the Web of Issues.
The corporate has confirmed plans to launch “a number of choices” within the i.MX 95 household, with various specs and energy necessities, with sampling on account of start for “lead prospects” within the second half of the 12 months. Extra info is offered on the NXP web site.
