With the introduction of the new GreenBox 3 real-time development platform, NXP offers a game-changing platform that promotes ECU consolidation for enabling the future of automotive electrification. In this post, we will explore a consolidated ECU demo created around the GreenBox 3 and explain what advantages the GreenBox 3 offers for each of these use cases and why you may want to consider an ECU consolidated design.

We already have application note AN13336 about running TFLM micro_speech example on Tensilica HiFi4 DSP on i.MX 8M Plus EVK.

In this document, TFLM micro_speech example will be upgraded to support i.MX DSP remote processors driver in newer Linux kernel, patch to support i.MX8QXP/i.MX8QM MEK will be provided, steps about how to download and install toolchain, how to build and run the example will be listed.

Hardware: i.MX8MP EVK, i.MX8QXP MEK, i.MX8QM MEK.
Software: Linux 5.15.52, TensorFlow Lite Micro

Security is becoming more and more important in automotive products and related designs. The attachment shows how to perform simple verification of the secure boot process based on LSDK2108 and LX2160ARDB.

Step by step: load fusion fw to 8ulp flash

In this article, I'd like to share the steps to run fusion dsp fw in 8ulp, including all the issues I have encountered.

Pre-steps

To follow the steps, you will need:

• An 8ULP A1 EVK board
• 8ULP L5.15.52 image https://www.nxp.com/webapp/Download?colCode=L5.15.52_2.1.0_MX8ULP-BETA4&appType=license
• uboot and imx-mkimage
• SDK_2_12_1_EVK-MIMX8ULP_PRC4 - https://mcuxpresso.nxp.com/download/3b8a2df3ddcfce9bbe402722d28c85d9
• IAR IDE 9.30.1 - https://www.iar.com/
• Jlink V7.50 - https://www.segger.com/downloads/jlink/
• Access to Tensilica Tools - https://tensilicatools.com/download/i-mx-8ulp-fusion-dsp-sdk

The race is on

The automotive industry is being revolutionized by innovations in efficient energy management, new vehicle architectures and software-defined vehicles (SDVs).  Automakers are racing to develop new solutions, taking advantage of these paradigm shifts in the market to establish themselves as innovators and to secure competitive positioning for their products.   

Market adoption of electrified vehicles is ramping quickly, propelled by government legislation for improved efficiency and reduced carbon emissions.  Vehicle networks have become increasingly complex, and manufacturers are recognizing significant opportunities to reduce cost, vehicle weight and development cycle times by moving to domain and zonal architectures that consolidate functions into fewer electronic control units with increased processing power.  Software-defined vehicles, which take full advantage of these new vehicle architectures, will provide life-long upgrade possibilities, resulting in vehicles that improve in performance over their lifetime and enable new revenue streams for vehicle manufacturers. 

The RT685-AUD-EVK allowed me to validate my custom frontend circuitry and get started on other critical DSP software development.  I was able to connect the piezoelectric saddle pickups on my engineering guitar into the test bed via the custom daughtercard. From here I can focus on firmware in the MCU and DSP cores in the RT685. 

Please find document which is missing in the latest SDK bundle location for RT devices \docs\wireless\Release Notes.

The new S32Z and S32E automotive real-time processor families supercharge real-time vehicle compute and control applications. This article highlights how the complementary S32G vehicle network processor for service-oriented gateways, combined with the S32Z and S32E real-time processor can enable new automotive applications. Combining real-time compute with secure cloud connectivity supports advanced sensing, processing and control applications that can adapt with the life of your vehicle.

Vehicle electrical architectures are going through a transformation to achieve the consumers demand for driver assistance, electrification and service functions.  To support modern software-defined vehicles and reduce the cost of the vehicle network, and the associated wiring harness, it is being transitioned to a domain and zonal architectures (or a combination of them). While this evolution helps address the software and cost challenges, it brings other challenges, such as how to partition safety critical real time control operations, like vehicle propulsion.  

As automotive manufacturers are modernizing their vehicle networks, they are increasingly integrating related functions into a single ECU. Choosing a processor for these new ECUs is a critical task, which NXP makes easier with the new S32Z/E Real-Time Processor families

A beginner-level model example that can be implemented using NXP's Model-Based Design Toolbox. Learn how to design, build and deploy an embedded program that can run on any MCU.

The disruptive technologies of multi-gigabit Automotive Ethernet, IEEE time-sensitive networking (TSN) protocols and automotive cloud-native DevOps are coming together to enable the Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV). NXP is at the leading edge of these technology trends and recently announced the S32Z and S32E real-time processors families. 

This article lays out some of the progress on the disruptive technology front and explains how NXP plays a critical role with the launch of the S32 real-time processors by enabling the integration of vehicle-wide, real-time functions and supporting new vehicle architectures involving central compute, domain control and the zonal edge.  

This launch introduces our Smart Card Trust Provisioning Solution, bringing customers a major new capability in protecting their Software Intellectual Property (IP) and guarding against over-production and cloning.

A singular article is simply not enough to do this component justice, so I wanted to follow up and highlight some other features that make the LPC5536 unique.

The latest release of NXP's free UI design tool for LVGL is out now - GUI Guider 1.3.1 features major improvements in usability and optimization. 

Hooking up to the external world usually means that our MCUs must learn to  “speak” analog.   A high-performance analog system was added to the LPC553x family to enable more integrated, lower external component count designs.

NXP's free UI design tool for the open source LVGL graphics library continues to add great new features and capabilities. GUI Guider 1.3.0 was released on January 24th 2022 and includes exciting new widgets, more host platform support, Keil project output and Micropython.

We are pleased to announce that Config Tools for i.MX Application Processors v11 are now available.

DDR tool supports i.MX8M family and LX2160A. DDR tool is part of Config tools for i.MX offering configuration, inspection, optimization, vTSA, stressing and code generation. It can be downloaded from 

https://www.nxp.com/design/designs/config-tools-for-i-mx-applications-processors:CONFIG-TOOLS-IMX

After setting my new 16” M1Max Macbook Pro, I found some surprising results for the kernel compile time. The Ubuntu Virtual Machine on my M1 MBP compiled the i.MX Linux kernel faster than an Intel i9 3650 Dell Precision workstation running native Ubuntu. Since the comparison is a bit like apple to oranges, I tried to minimize the variables, and, I also compared an older i7 Dell Precision M4700 and a Xeon.

The SuperMonkey is here!  Come see the bring-up of an i.MX RT685 based design that uses QSPI flash connected to FlexSPI Port A.

NXP has now introduced MCU-Link Pro - the second incarnation of the MCU-Link debug probe architecture, adding several powerful capabilities and features to build on the entry level MCU-Link standalone model. This includes power/energy measurement, USB bridging and a J-Link firmware option.

NXP has released a new library, replacing LPCUSBSIO, to enable communication via USB bridges available on evaluation boards with LPC-Link2 and upcoming MCU-Link probes. User documentation and a Python wrapper are also available.

An interactive tutorial on how to create your own MATLAB Simulink temperature sensor application by applying the model-based design approach, how to configure and use the i.MXRT1060 EVK using NXP MCUXpresso, a thermistor module and the IMXRT Toolbox.

We are pleased to announce that MCUXpresso Secure Provisioning Tool v3.1 is now available.

Join this hackathon with Resideo and see what innovation awaits!

NXP's innovative MCUs, based on Arm® Cortex®-M cores and part of the EdgeVerse™ edge computing platform, continue to transform the industry landscape with increasing performance and integration, further complemented by outstanding enablement including MCUXpresso software and tools and an extensive ecosystem of partners. Get started now!

We are pleased to announce that Config Tools for i.MX Application Processors v10 are now available.

Announcement that MCUXpresso Config Tools v10 are now available.