topic Re: i.MX8QM VPU information needed for developing H.264 decoding software in i.MX Processors

i.MX8QM VPU information needed for developing H.264 decoding software

ToarteFretter — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 10:06:02 GMT

Dear,

We would like to develop software to decode H.264 video using the VPU inside the i.MX8QM.

However, the reference manual is very brief on the VPU details.

Is there more information available regarding its operation; for example, how to interact with these four M0+ cores, how to provide the TS data, how to retrieve the decoded video?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards.

Re: i.MX8QM VPU information needed for developing H.264 decoding software

Manuel_Salas — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 17:19:38 GMT

Hello @ToarteFretter

Hope you are doing very well.

Unfortunately, NXP does not publicly share detailed Amphion VPU firmware documentation. The firmware is provided by the IP owner (Amphion), and NXP does not have any driver or SDK examples for controlling the VPU directly from the M core.

We just have the i.MX VPU Application Programming Interface Linux Reference Manual available.

Best regarsd,

Salas.

Re: i.MX8QM VPU information needed for developing H.264 decoding software

ToarteFretter — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 08:41:00 GMT

Hello @Manuel_Salas

Yes, we're doing fine, thanks for asking!

Just to be sure we're aligned, we want to develop the software on the A-core, not on the M4 or even directly on the M0+ cores.

From what we've seen in the provided document, there should be a driver inside the Linux distribution, right? I think I've found the source code of this.

The firmware itself that must be loaded on these M0+ cores, is this also somewhere present inside the Linux distribution?

Many thanks again!

Best regards,

ToarteFretter.