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NXP Proves That Smaller And More Secure Is Better

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NXP

At the Embedded World Conference in Germany, NXP announced the new i.MX8 Nano processor family capable of supporting heterogeneous multi-core computing and 3D graphics, all in less than 1W. The new Nano will bring more performance to size and power sensitive applications. In addition, the company is one of the first to also support the new Platform Security Architecture (PSA) Certification developed by Arm for some of its microcontroller (MCU), cross-over processor, and applications processor products.

The i.MX 8M Nano is the third product line in the i.MX8M applications processor family. The product family is designed to fit a wide range of industrial and consumer applications ranging from 4K video and high-end audio to multicore and AI processing in milliwatts. On the high-end, the i.MX 8M is designed for high-computing and media-intensive applications. The i.MX 8M supports 4K video, multiple displays, and multiple cameras with a fast USB 3.0 interface. The i.MX 8M Mini was the first in the family to leverage a 14LPC FinFET process for higher performance and power efficiency. The Mini also leveraged more moderate real-time graphics and general purpose I/O typical in industrial applications.

Nano is the newest family member. Like the Mini, the i.MX 8M Nano is also built on the 14nm process. The Nano features a low-power Arm Cortex-M7 MCU core running up to 600MHz, up to four Arm Cortex-A53 cores running up to 1.5GHz for higher-performance power-efficient processing, and a 3D GPU core that supports high-performance graphics with the Vulkan API and OpenCL 1.2 for machine learning. Although the quad-core version has a maximum dynamic thermal design power (TDP) of 2W, the company claims that the processor can run under a watt with all four Cortex-53 running. Normally, however, the processor runs well under a watt by offloading some advanced functions like audio processing and sensor fusion to the Cortex-M7 core.

NXP

The Nano is pin-compatible with the i.MX 8M Mini line and supports LPDDR4, DDR4, and DDR3L memory. The Nano is also software compatible with the rest of the i.MX 8M product family. The entire product family are currently supported on Android and Linux and will soon be supported on Microsoft’s Windows 10 IoT OS and well as the Azure IoT Edge platform.

NXP

With its high-performance and low-power, the i.MX 8M Nano is well suited for a wide range of applications from portable and home consumer products to medical applications and industrial control solutions. In addition to the i.MX 8M Nano, NXP announced a new K32 Energy-efficient microcontroller series for even lower-power applications.

NXP also reaffirmed its commitment to security by being one of the first Arm silicon partners to support the new PSA security certification. In conjunction with Brightside, NXP has level 1 PSA certification on its LPC55CS00 MCUs; i.MX RT1050, i.MX RT1060, and i.MX RT600 cross-over processors; and I.MX 7ULP, i.MX 8M Mini, i.MX 8M Nano, i.MX 8QuadXPlus, and i.MX 8QuadMax applications processors. In addition, NXP supports the Security Evaluation Scheme for IoT Platforms (SESIP) security platform. NXP ensures the highest level of security through the company’s ROM-based boot process with secure device keys for a hardware-based root-of-trust (RoT) to secure the entire software stack.

In other words, these are not your average embedded processors. NXP continues to push the boundaries on size and performance allowing high-performance and secure processing in almost any edge IoT device. This is key as sensor fusion and AI/ML continue to drive the demand for even more performance at the edge. TIRIAS Research also believes the this fortifies NXP’s position as the leader in IoT solutions with the most secure and broadest MCU and applications processor product portfolio of any semiconductor vendor.

The author and members of the TIRIAS Research staff do not hold equity positions in any of the companies mentioned. TIRIAS Research tracks and consults for companies throughout the electronics ecosystem from semiconductors and sensors to the cloud. Members of the TIRIAS Research team have worked or consulted for Arm, Microsoft, NXP and other companies throughout the electronics ecosystem.

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