NXP has introduced a brand new household of utility processors, the i.MX 91 — getting into the i.MX 9-series vary as a household particularly focused at bringing intelligence to the sting of the Web of Issues (IoT).
“The i.MX 91 household is outlined to be the essence of long-life, cost-optimized and versatile Linux-based utility platforms,” claims NXP’s James Prior of the corporate’s newest processor household. “Hundreds of functions starting from Trade 4.0, medical, shopper and IoT markets might be developed and enabled utilizing the i.MX 91 and that i.MX 93 households’ widespread platform.”
NXP has a brand new entry in its i.MX 9 vary: the i.MX 91, designed as a lower-power lower-cost various to the i.MX 93. (📷: NXP)
The widespread platform is prone to be key to the success of the i.MX 91 vary: the brand new chips are designed to be totally appropriate with their i.MX 93 counterparts, launched two years in the past and NXP’s first to incorporate an Arm Ethos-U65 neural networking coprocessor to spice up the efficiency of machine studying workloads on edge units. Anybody working with the i.MX 93 now, then, ought to be capable to leap throughout to the i.MX 91 with out issue.
These doing so will discover a acquainted gadget, however one optimized for a decrease energy draw quite than uncooked efficiency. Exact specs fluctuate by half, however each mannequin within the household is constructed atop a single Arm Cortex-A55 microcontroller core with NEON acceleration and floating-point unit, missing the neural coprocessor of the i.MX 93 vary. There’s help for LPDDR4 reminiscence, three SD/SDIO/eMMC channels, octal SPI flash with inline cryptography help, safe JTAG debugging, and a video output for 24-bits per pixel (BPP) parallel RGB shows with eight-bit parallel RGB digicam help.
On the enter/output facet, the chips embrace eight {hardware} UARTs together with eight SPI, eight I2C, two I3C, and two CAN-FD buses, two 32-pin FlexIO connectors, a four-channel 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), two gigabit Ethernet ports considered one of which helps Time Delicate Networking (TSN), two USB 2.0 ports, 4 I2S transmit-receive channels, an eight-channel PDM microphone enter, and what NXP categorizes as “medium high quality” stereo audio output.
The corporate positions its new elements as very best for all the things from sensible house and medical to wearables and set-top bins. (📷: NXP)
Lastly, the chips embrace NXP’s “EdgeLock” safe enclave system, which incorporates cryptographic accelerators, automated tamper detection, a safe clock, safe boot, eFuse-backed key storage, and a real {hardware} random quantity generator. On the software program facet, NXP is promising full compatibility with Linux, Inexperienced Hills, and QNX platforms.
Sadly for these seeing one thing value chasing in that spectacular checklist of options, the chips aren’t fairly prepared but: NXP has mentioned that that samples will likely be accessible to “choose prospects and companions” within the second half of this 12 months, with normal availability not anticipated till late 2024. That hasn’t stopped no less than one of many firm’s companions from saying a design constructed across the i.MX 91, although: Variscite is exhibiting off a pre-release system-on-module, the VAR-SOM-MX91, at COMPUTEX in Taipei this week, and once more guarantees analysis {hardware} within the second half of the 12 months.
Extra info is on the market on NXP’s web site.
