Introducing The Newest Player in Edge Computing – The i.MX 8M Nano and Board Partners

The i.MX 8M Nano applications processor follows the highly successful i.MX 8M Mini into the world of edge computing with one, two or four Arm^® Cortex^®-A53 cores, an Arm Cortex-M7 and a 3D GPU. With the full market launch and wide availability through major distribution channels, we are further expanding the enablement of the i.MX 8M Nano through our embedded board partner solutions.

NXP’s i.MX 8M Nano is the latest addition to the i.MX 8M family. It is pin and software compatible with the i.MX 8M Mini and software compatible with the i.MX 8M. This provides customers with scalability and maximizes design and software reuse across multiple applications. Furthermore, all i.MX 8M processors are qualified to robust industrial standards to operate 24/7 in harsh environments such as the factory floor, outdoor installation in unconditioned cabinets and tight enclosures without any air flow. The stringent industrial standards makes the i.MX 8M Nano ideal for industry applications as well as emerging edge consumer applications such as voice.

The i.MX 8M Nano applications processor brings new capabilities vs. the pin-compatible i.MX 8M Mini applications processor. These include upgraded 3D GPU to support OpenGL^® ES 3.1, Vulkan^® for next-generation Android support and OpenCL^™ 1.2 for accelerating machine learning applications. It also introduces a fast Cortex-M7 core with double-precision floating point support as well as offering speeds up to 750MHz and an overall up to 4x performance increase.

NXP’s diverse partner ecosystem is comprised of a global network of engineering companies that offer the technology and services to speed up your design. Realizing the immense benefit to having such solutions, NXP enabled a key group of our embedded board partners early in the development process to enable an active ecosystem at launch. We are confident that our partners’ solutions bring a rich and diverse set of expertise to our customers.

We are thrilled to present the i.MX 8M Nano early access partners, a quick overview and links to their offerings. Below is a list of the system on modules (SoMs), single board computers (SBCs) and evaluation kits from our early access partners. We look forward to seeing what our customers can create and encourage you to explore all we have to offer to ease your design to market journey.

Figure 1. BCM AR8MXMN

BCM – AR8MXMN

• Ready for commercial utilization, as is, out of the box – just add power and it’s completely functional
• Extended 5-7 year plus lifecycle
• Same SBC is scalable to support both i.MX 8M Nano and i.MX 8M Mini as BOM options
• Revision controlled with published ECO change notifications

Figure 2. Nitrogen8M Nano

BOUNDARY DEVICES: NITROGEN8M NANO

• Optimized for low power consumption without sacrificing processing power with NXP’s PF8121 PMIC
• Lower cost family of products designed to complement our high performance Nitrogen8M (i.MX 8M) family of SBCs and SOMs
• Designed for the industrial market with dual Ethernet and on-board CAN bus

Figure 3. ConnectCore 8M Nano

DIGI: CONNECTCORE^® 8M NANO

• Compact and low-profile (40 x 45 x 3.5 mm). With no board-to-board connectors, Digi SMTPlus^® eliminates system cost while improving reliability and security
• Digi embedded yocto (DEY) is a complete, open-source, embedded software development solution based on Yocto Project^™ Linux
• Digi TrustFence^® is an integrated, tested and complete Linux^® device security framework that simplifies building secure connected products

Figure 4. QS8M Nano System-on-Module

KA-RO: QS8M NANO SYSTEM-ON-MODULE

• Tiny QFN surface-mount SOM, just 27 x27 x 2.3mm
• Pin-compatible with QS8M Mini SOM
• Guaranteed 12-year availability

Figure 5. Verdin iMX8MMini/Nano System-on-Module

TORADEX: VERDIN i.MX 8M MINI/NANO SYSTEM-ON-MODULE

• First Module in the brand new Verdin module family from Toradex
• Future proof pin-out optimized for modern industrial application
• Full Toradex Eco System and free support

Figure 6. VAR-SOM-MX8M-NANO

VARISCITE: VAR-SOM-MX8M-NANO

• A pin2pin system on module, compatible with Variscite’s i.MX 8M Mini, i.MX 8, i.MX 8X, i.MX 6 and i.MX 6UltraLite based solutions
• Cost-optimized solution for Linux and Android-based embedded platforms
• High CPU performance with an advanced graphic accelerator and reach connectivity options