Dutch electronics company NXP says its i.MX 95 family of applications processors can deliver safe, secure and scalable AI-enabled edge platforms.

The family combines multi-core high performance compute, immersive 3D graphics and an integrated neural processing unit (NPU) to enable machine learning and edge use across automotive, industrial and IoT applications.

Part of the firm’s SafeAssure portfolio, the family’s heterogeneous domain design powers safety-enabled platforms with integrated real-time safety domain.

Announced at last week’s CES in Las Vegas, the latest addition to the i.MX 9 series of applications processor combines high-performance compute, immersive Arm Mali-powered 3D graphics, an accelerator for machine learning, and high-speed data processing. This technology enables applications in automotive, industrial, networking, connectivity, human machine interface (HMI) and more. Additionally, it delivers safety and security features, developed in compliance with automotive Asil-B and industrial Sil-2 functional safety standards and including an integrated EdgeLock secure enclave.

Critical requirements for the next wave of edge applications include advanced processing and machine-learning capabilities, combined with high-speed connectivity, to analyse the environment and make intelligent decisions locally.

The i.MX 95 family is the first i.MX applications processor family to integrate NXP’s eIQ Neutron NPU and an image signal processor (ISP) developed to help developers build powerful edge platforms.

“Combining our deep expertise in functional safety with AI acceleration, high performance CPU cores, and high-throughput connectivity, NXP is creating the standard for a new generation of safe and secure edge platforms,” said Rafael Sotomayor, executive vice president at NXP.

The family enables machine vision through its integrated eIQ Neutron NPU as part of a vision processing pipeline for use with multiple camera sensors or network-attached smart cameras. The i.MX 95 SoC integrates an ISP supporting an array of imaging sensors to enable vision-capable industrial, robotics, medical and automotive applications, all backed by developer support. A rich, vibrant graphics experience for the user is enabled by Arm Mali GPU capabilities, scaling from multi-display automotive infotainment centres to industrial and IoT HMI based applications.

Capabilities include a multi-core application domain with up to six Arm Cortex-A55 cores, as well as an independent safety domain consisting of Cortex-M7 and Cortex-M33 CPUs, combining low-power, real-time and high-performance processing.

The family is designed to enable ISO 26262 Asil-B and Sil-2 IEC 61508 compliant platforms, with the functional safety domain serving as a critical capability for many automotive and industrial applications. Platforms based on i.MX 95 serve to help ensure safety critical actions in a vehicle, such as voice warnings, instrumentation and cameras meet reliability standards set by automotive OEMs. Similarly, in industrial factory automation platforms, the functional safety domain helps ensure that an industrial control system will always return to a pre-determined state, even when rest of the system fails.

Edge platforms for Industry 4.0, automotive connectivity domain controllers and IoT smart home gateways can benefit from the integrated 10Gbit Ethernet plus two 1Gbit Ethernet ports, with TSN capabilities. Adding wireless connectivity such as wifi, Bluetooth LE, satellite radio or 5G is simpler thanks to two independent PCIe ports, USB 3 port and integrated BSP-level drivers for wireless connectivity.

A secure enclave simplifies implementation of security critical functions such as secure boot, cryptography, trust provisioning and run-time attestation. Combined with NXP’s EdgeLock 2 Go key management services, manufacturers can securely provision i.MX 95 SoC-based products for secure remote management of devices deployed in the field, including secure over-the-air (OTA) updates.

The ISP is optimised for machine-vision applications and supports two regions-of-interest, HDR combination of two exposures, and de-noising and edge enhancement with support for colour, monochrome and RGB-IR camera sensors.

On-the-fly memory encryption enables secure data processing to help ensure privacy and security in various applications. A dedicated cryptographic engine with support for a wide range of standards enables automotive V2X applications.

The family implements NXP’s Energy Flex architecture that enables fine-grained independent power management of Cortex-A applications domain and real-time Cortex-M safety domain. This allows developers to run the real-time safety domain at all times for sensor data monitoring; and power up the applications domain only when necessary to reduce system-level energy consumption.

Support for LPDDR5 and LPDDR4X DRAM delivers the bandwidth needed to serve computing domains and high-performance graphics, while offering flexibility of memory choice to meet user needs.

The family will be available in multiple options, scaling performance and features to suit power, performance and application requirements while addressing user targets.

The i.MX 95 applications processors are expected to begin sampling for lead customers in the second half of this year.