In this post, I want to share a quick walkthrough of LLM Edge Studio, an NXP launcher application designed to test supported Large Language Models running locally on i.MX platforms with Ara240 DNPU acceleration.
LLM Edge Studio provides a simple GUI to select a model, load it, enter prompts, and interact with an LLM directly at the edge. It communicates with the Ara240 Runtime SDK through the eIQ AAF Connector, using a REST-based interface for prompt submission and streaming token responses.
Qwen2.5-coder-1.5BQwen2.5-7B-InstructThese models are provided as Ara240-compatible model.dvm files and are intended for local execution on the target platform.
After making sure the Ara240 Runtime SDK is installed on the target board, copy the Debian package:
scp llm-edge-studio.deb root@:
Install it with:
dpkg -i llm-edge-studio.deb
The installation may take a few minutes because the required models are downloaded during setup.
Start the application with:
run_llm_edge_studio
Before launching, make sure the Ara240 runtime service is running:
systemctl status rt-sdk-ara2.service --no-pager -l
Once the GUI appears, click LOAD to load the selected model. After the model is ready, enter a prompt and submit it to start interacting with the LLM.
In the attached video, I show how to launch LLM Edge Studio, load a supported model, submit a prompt, and view the generated response running locally on the i.MX platform with Ara240 DNPU acceleration.
LLM Edge Studio is a useful tool for quickly evaluating local LLM inference on NXP i.MX platforms using Ara240 DNPU acceleration. It provides a simple workflow for model loading, prompt testing, and observing token streaming directly at the edge.