NXP i.MX 95 Family Unleashes Possibilities for the Secure, Connected Edge

The next wave of edge applications calls for a step change in heterogenous, multicore architectures with unprecedented integration, scalability, performance and security. Today’s automotive, industrial and IoT designs require high-performance processing, machine learning acceleration, premium 3D graphics and vision processing, fortress-like security features, real-time safety domains and high-speed connectivity – with no design shortcuts or compromises. NXP has delivered on the promise of a secure, connected edge with an advanced platform solution: the i.MX 95 family of applications processors.

We’ve Embarked on a New Era of Edge Computing

The Edge Era is underway. Intelligent edge applications are superseding traditional PCs and smartphones with a new focus on secure edge-to-cloud connectivity and scalable AI capabilities across all platforms and applications. The years ahead in this decade will be defined by a secure, connected edge that encompasses increasingly software-defined vehicles to Industry 4.0 and factory automation, to the tens of billions of connected devices comprising the Internet of Things.

NXP’s i.MX 9 series of applications processors, part of the EdgeVerse^™ edge computing platform, is designed to meet developer needs for higher performance, machine learning, state-of-the-art security and dedicated multi-sensory data processing engines. Building on the market-proven i.MX 6 and i.MX 8 series and the breakthrough innovation of the i.MX 93 processor, NXP is debuting a new applications processor family that marks a major inflection point in the edge computing market. This new i.MX family addresses the explosive growth in smart, connected devices deployed throughout our homes, offices, vehicles, factories and cities.

Introducing NXP’s Flagship i.MX 95 Family of Applications Processors

The i.MX 95 family is the newest addition to NXP’s i.MX 9 series, taking the helm as the flagship i.MX applications processor. Purpose-built for the secure, connected edge across a broad range of markets and applications, the i.MX 95 family provides a powerful, scalable compute platform offering essential technologies developers need for edge designs, for automotive eCockpit and connectivity domains; Industry 4.0 automation, control and human-machine interfaces (HMI); and smart home or smart office platforms. The i.MX 95 family also provides the facilities for medical platforms, providing real-time control, monitoring and connectivity for critical medical devices such as pumps, respirators and in-home monitoring systems.

Developers building edge applications with the new i.MX 95 processor are capturing the opportunity to expand their design possibilities and market potential. The highly flexible, scalable i.MX 95 architecture lets developers dial in the edge platform they aim to build with the right feature set and processing capabilities with optimal value. The full market potential of the i.MX 95 family is enormous, spanning automotive, industrial automation, robotics, edge networking, medical platforms, advanced human machine interfaces (HMI) and other compute-intensive edge applications.

The i.MX 95 platform excels in secure edge processing. It offers best-in-class neural net acceleration, state-of-the-art security with a secure enclave, a real-time safety domain with functional safety certification, high-end graphics and image signal processing, and much more. NXP also supports edge designs with comprehensive resources that developers need, including crossover MCUs, wireless devices, power management ICs, sensors, development tools and NXP and third-party software.

Enabling Edge Platforms with AI, Safety and Connectivity

When it comes to innovation at the connected edge, the i.MX 95 family covers the bases. It combines high-performance, multicore processing with an innovative NXP eIQ^® Neutron NPU for machine learning acceleration, immersive 3D graphics powered by an Arm^® Mali GPU, an NXP-developed image signal processor, a secure enclave to thwart cyberattacks and high-speed connectivity.

NXP’s eIQ Neutron NPU, a centerpiece of the i.MX 95 SoC architecture, accelerates AI applications for efficient, private decision making in edge computing platforms. Internally developed, the eIQ Neutron NPU provides flexibility to tune the solution to better meet our customer needs and the ability to provide ongoing support and generational improvements for changing applications and operator support needs. Software support is unified over multiple generations and device portfolio, creating consistent enablement and support solutions for our customers via the award-winning eIQ^® ML SW Development Environment.

Supported by NXP’s SafeAssure^® program, the i.MX 95 family’s advanced heterogeneous domain design powers safety-enabled automotive and industrial platforms with an integrated real-time safety domain. High-speed time-sensitive networking (TSN) capabilities and advanced I/O expansion keep pace with the throughput requirements of automotive connectivity domain controllers and Industry 4.0 applications.

The i.MX 95 family breaks new ground for the secure, connected edge by introducing a number of important NXP firsts:

• First i.MX applications processor family to implement the NXP-developed eIQ Neutron NPU, helping developers build powerful, AI-enabled edge platforms
• First implementation of the Arm Mali GPU on an NXP applications processor, enabling immersive 3D graphics for advanced user interfaces
• First i.MX application processor to use a new NXP-developed image signal processor (ISP), offering RGB-IR for low light conditions, and two zones of interest for different camera focal points
• First use of a 10G Ethernet port plus two 1G ports on an i.MX applications processor
• First i.MX processor with LPDDR5 memory support, which increases product longevity and bandwidth for vision processing and graphical use cases
• First i.MX product designed for functional safety-enabled platforms in industrial and automotive, including the SafeAssure certification process for industrial and automotive

State-of-the-Art Machine Vision Capabilities

Machine vision has become a must-have feature for industrial automation, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving and safety systems. The i.MX 95 family enables machine vision by integrating the eIQ Neutron NPU as part of a vision processing pipeline comprising multiple camera sensors or network-attached smart cameras. The i.MX 95 processor’s integrated image signal processor (ISP) supports a wide array of imaging sensors for vision-capable industrial, robotic, medical and automotive applications. The integrated Arm Mali GPU also enables developers to deliver a rich, vibrant 3D graphics experience for end users, scaling from eCockpit digital clusters and multi-display automotive infotainment centers to industrial and IoT HMI-based applications.

High-Performance Compute and Safety-Enabled Platforms

The i.MX 95 family’s multicore application domain features up to 6 Arm Cortex-A55 cores, providing exceptional scalability of computing power for automotive and industrial applications. An independent safety domain features an Arm Cortex-M33 processor and is joined by an independent real-time time domain with Arm Cortex-M7 processor, combining low-power, real-time and high-performance processing in a flexible SoC.

The i.MX 95 family is designed to enable ISO 26262 ASIL-B and SIL-2 IEC 61508 compliant platforms, including a functional safety domain serving as a critical capability for many automotive and industrial applications. Edge platforms based on the i.MX 95 family help ensure safety-critical actions in vehicles, such as audible alerts, instrumentation lights, and camera displays to meet the high-reliability standards set by automotive OEMs. In industrial factory automation platforms, the functional safety capabilities can enable an industrial control system to return to a pre-determined state, even if the rest of the system fails.

High-Speed Connectivity for Edge Platforms

Next-generation edge platforms for industrial gateways, automotive connectivity domain controllers and IoT smart home gateways will benefit from the i.MX 95 family’s integrated 10-gigabit Ethernet, along with two 1-gigabit Ethernet ports with advanced time-sensitive networking (TSN) capabilities. The i.MX 95 family also enables the addition of wireless connectivity options, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, satellite radio or 5G, by offering two independent PCIe Gen 3 lanes and USB 3 port, optimally suited for NXP’s wide array of wireless connectivity solutions.

Advanced Hardware Security Simplified

Security is an essential foundation for all connected edge applications. To meet this need, the i.MX 95 family integrates NXP’s EdgeLock^® secure enclave to simplify implementation of security-critical functions such as secure boot, cryptography, trust provisioning and run-time attestation. This self-contained, hardware security subsystem has its own dedicated security core, internal ROM and secure RAM, and supports state-of-the art side channel attack resilient symmetric and asymmetric crypto accelerators and hashing functions. The secure enclave functions like a security headquarters or fortress inside the SoC, storing and protecting key assets, including roof of trust and crypto keys to safeguard the system against physical and network attacks.

Backed by 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 updates (OTA) for automotive and industrial systems. The i.MX 95 family is optimized to seamlessly work with the EdgeLock SE05x secure element and EdgeLock A5000 secure authenticator. These discrete security components with optionally pre-injected keys and certificates provide a Common Criteria EAL6+ certified, turnkey plug-in solution, bringing additional tamper resistance and support for additional security use cases.

Flagship i.MX 95 Family at a Glance

• NXP’s eIQ Neutron NPU and machine learning (ML) application development are supported by the award-winning eIQ ML software development environment.
• NXP’s ISP is optimized for machine vision applications and supports two Regions of Interest, HDR combination of two exposures and advanced de-noising and edge enhancement, along with support for color, monochrome and RGB-IR camera sensors.
• NXP’s SafeAssure program helps customers confidently develop platforms based on i.MX 95 while meeting stringent international safety standards including ISO 26262 ASIL-B for automotive designs and SIL-2 IEC 61508 for industrial applications.
• On-the-fly memory encryption enables secure data processing to address privacy and security concerns for a wide range of applications.
• A dedicated cryptographic engine with support for the latest security standards enables next-generation automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications.
• The i.MX 95 family’s Energy Flex architecture enables fine-grained independent power management of the Cortex-A applications domain and real-time Cortex-M safety domain. This innovative architecture enables developers to run the real-time safety domain at all times for sensor data monitoring, and then power up the applications domain only when necessary to minimize system-level energy consumption.
• Support for LPDDR5 and LPDDR4X DRAM delivers the bandwidth needed to serve high-performance graphics and vision workloads, while enabling flexible memory options to meet unique platform needs.

Get on Board with NXP’s i.MX 95 Flagship Edge Processor

When you design with the i.MX 95 family, there are no compromises on essential features and capabilities for today’s connected edge applications. Consider everything the i.MX 95 processor has to offer: AI/ML acceleration with NXP’s eIQ Neutron NPU; NXP SafeAssure real-time and safety domain capabilities; premium 3D graphics powered by the Arm Mali GPU; powerful vision processing enabled by NXP’s ISP engine; exceptional connectivity and expandability through 10GbE, PCIe and USB 3; and state-of-the-art security with NXP’s EdgeLock secure enclave. NXP also provides a comprehensive portfolio of processing, wireless connectivity, power management and sensor products, backed by a broad ecosystem of NXP software, development tools, third-party resources and global support.

NXP’s i.MX applications processors are available worldwide through distributors and eTailers. To ensure a stable supply of products for embedded designs, all i.MX 8 series and i.MX 9 series products are guaranteed for a minimum of 15 years of availability as members of the NXP product longevity program.

The i.MX 95 applications processors are expected to begin sampling for lead customers in 2H 2023. The i.MX 95 processors will be available in multiple options, scaling performance and features to suit varying power, performance and application requirements while addressing customer platform value targets.

For more information on the i.MX 95 family, contact Sales worldwide.