Android Things Adds i.MX 7Dual and Google Voice Assistant Support

Today, as part of Google’s next Developer Preview release of Android Things, a new Board Support Package will be added for the Pico board powered by the NXP i.MX 7Dual applications processor. Additionally, this latest release will include support for the Google Assistant SDK enabling developers to embed the Google Assistant voice services within their devices based on the i.MX7Dual.

Android Things, announced by Google in December 2016, is a version of the Android OS, which has been modified for IoT specific needs.in both the connected home and enterprise. Designed to enable product developers to quickly build secure connected devices the addition and easy integration of the Google Assistant with Android Things enables a whole new set of usage models as companies look to integrate voice across the IoT market.

Together with the i.MX 6UltraLite, the i.MX 7Dual becomes NXP’s second i.MX applications processor to be qualified by Google to run Android Things at optimal performance. The i.MX 7Dual not only adds a second ARM^® Cortex^®-A7 core to enable higher overall performance, but also offers an integrated Cortex-M4 core for low-power heterogenous multicore processing.

In addition to these core processing improvements and support for the Google Assistant the following hardware and software features have been added:

• Integrated Inter-IC Sound Bus (I2S) has been added to the Peripheral I/O API, now enabling audio drivers to be written in user space for sound hardware connected via an I2S-bus.
• MIPI (CSI) Camera Serial Interface connector enabling the addition of small footprint camera modules and high data transfer rates.
• 802.11 a/c Wi-Fi providing high throughput wireless networks on both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands.
• Bluetooth’s Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) enabling an audio source in Android Things that can be heard using a Bluetooth speaker

These new features are offered in the same small form factor SOM as the current Pico 6UL SOM and are sold with the same Pico base board as part of a low-cost development kit.

The addition of support for Google’s Voice Assistant based on higher performance from the i.MX7Dual applications processor greatly expands the scope of IoT development with Android Things, without changing the goal of enabling fast prototyping, product development and launch — all at predictable scaling costs. For more details on the Pico i.MX7Dual and i.MX6UL Android Things boards, please visit Android Things and Voice Assistant.