NXP introduces the i.MX 8M Nano processor

NXP Semiconductors announced the i.MX 8M Nano processor, a pin-compatible extension of its i.MX 8M application processor. The multi-core i.MX 8M Nano can scale to run one, two or four Arm® Cortex-A53 cores (up to 1.5GHz) and one Arm Cortex-M7 (up to 600MHz), but in many Internet of Things (IoT) edge applications, Its total dynamic power (TDP) and secondary power are less than 2W. The processor integrates the General Purpose 3D Graphics Capability (GC7000UL) to support Vulkan in high-performance real-time graphics and OpenCL1.2 in advanced machine learning applications.

The i.MX 8M Nano is the first product to offer hardware acceleration for asynchronous sampling rate conversion (ASRC), providing up to 32 channels of high-quality audio streaming with extremely low noise and distortion. With the i.MX 8M Nano, developers can access up to 12 software-compatible and 9 pin-compatible high-performance application processors in the i.MX 8M family, supported by a rapidly expanding ecosystem of software and hardware developers.

Martyn Humphries, Vice president and general manager of i.MX Application Processors at NXP, said: "With the i.MX 8M Nano, NXP has once again demonstrated its leadership in providing developers with more processor choices. One product doesn't fit all of a developer's needs, and our customers need a family of processors that best suit their applications without having to redevelop software and hardware for each new product. As the latest member of the evolving i.MX 8M family, the i.MX 8M Nano is introduced to provide greater flexibility and is specifically optimized for the power-sensitive, high-performance needs of the smart edge."

Aaron Ard, senior Director of engineering at Leviton, said: "Leviton recently released Decora Voice Dimmer with Amazon Alexa built in, which uses NXP's high-performance i.MX 8M Mini application processor to add more intelligent features, Combine the convenience of hands-free voice control, smart home device management, and Leviton's best-in-class smart lighting control technology without the need for additional hardware. It is great to see the i.MX 8M Nano on the market, and the device's innovation and future-proof pin compatibility allows us to continue to offer our solutions at a price that our customers are happy to accept."

The ideal combination of flexibility, high performance and low power consumption

NXP's i.MX 8M Nano is pin-compatible with the i.MX 8M Mini and is compatible with the i.MX 8M software, thus providing customers with excellent scalability when designing their systems. It also enables developers to maximize design and software reuse across multiple applications. In addition, all i.MX 8M processors meet stringent industrial quality standards, making them ideal for Industry 4.0 applications.

The i.MX 8M Nano is NXP's second platform built with advanced 14nm LPC FinFET technology that enables high-performance processing at low power consumption. Even when all four Cortex-A53 cores are up and running, they consume less than 1W in many iot applications, making them ideal for power-sensitive edge computing applications. The real-time processing domain, powered by a high-performance Cortex-M7 core (up to 600MHz), further reduces power consumption with Cortex-A kernel offloading tasks, optimized audio playback power consumption, and low-power monitoring of system-level tasks.

Cloud support, tools, and ecosystem

The i.MX 8M series builds on decades of successful NXP i.MX 6 and i.MX 7 series general-purpose application processors and is fully supported on Linux and Android operating systems (OS). In addition, NXP and Microsoft are working to bring Azure IoT Edge to i.MX 8M application processors across Linux and Windows 10 IoT core operating systems. As part of this effort, Azure IoT Edge will be implemented on all i.MX application processor platforms. Customers can deploy and manage IoT Edge container applications using Azure cloud dashboards. From i.MX 6, i.MX 7 to i.MX 8/8M, NXP customers will not only have access to the industry's widest range of application processors, but will also be able to seamlessly connect and take full advantage of Azure capabilities in their smart edge products.

The i.MX 8M series is supported by a rapidly growing ecosystem of software and hardware developers. For example, the i.MX 8M mini is now supported by more than 18 global board developers (Embedded Board Systems - EBS-Partners). This growing ecosystem support will extend to the i.MX 8M Nano. The Nano Development Board (EVK) is a two-board solution consisting of a compact compute module and a larger substrate that provides the extensive connectivity required for product evaluation.

The compute module is designed to support various memory types (LPDDR4, DDR4, DDR3L) as well as i.MX 8M Nano, PMIC, eMMC and solded-on Wi-Fi/BT modules for out-of-the-box connectivity. The device uses the same EVK design as the i.MX 8M Mini, making it easy for developers to switch to the computing module that best suits their product needs.