Announced in October, the i.MX RT1170 is NXP’s latest break-through technology within the i.MX RT series of Crossover MCUs. What makes the i.MX RT1170 so cutting edge?
The i.MX RT1170 is the world’s first broad market GHz MCU, and no, that big “G” is not a typo. This device is operating at about 10x the typical microcontroller speeds and over 2x faster than its closest competition in the market. Gigahertz processing will really change the mindset of what an MCU is capable of. With this type of computational power, we will see shortened inference times for machine learning and overall higher performance and accuracy for a broad range of applications.
The peripherals within the i.MX RT1170 chip are best-in-class as seen in the block diagram below. With two Gigabit Ethernet blocks, and an additional 10/100 Ethernet, the wired connectivity options are plentiful. The i.MX RT1170 device also includes 2D GPU and accelerators as well as multiple image building graphical display units. With the standardized MIPI-CSI interface, camera data can be easily captured. The integrated video mux can pass the image data directly to displays without the need of DRAM space. In addition, the i.MX RT1170 also includes all of the standard serial peripherals, analog inputs and timers one would expect for an MCU. The i.MX RT1170 carries the tradition of including the very versatile FlexIO module for the case where you do need an additional peripheral.
With production planned for 2H 2020, the i.MX RT1170 is certainly a chip to be excited about. Stay tuned for more updates in the new year.