The i.MX 7ULP crossover applications processors, NXP’s first 28nm FDSOI applications processors for the broad embedded market, are widely available now. Since announcement, they’ve been designed into a number of products based on the winning combination of functionality and low power consumption.
With wide availability through all major distribution channels, we anticipate more companies will want to use the valuable features the i.MX 7ULP brings together for their future designs as well.
The heterogeneous domain computing architecture in the i.MX 7ULP makes it possible for low-power designs to dynamically shift between high-performance and low-power modes depending on the use case. In the high-performance mode, the processing accelerates due to improved CPU (Cortex-A7 vs. Cortex-M4) and system performance (bus speed), while still leveraging lower power peripherals as LP-DDR to minimize power consumption.
This processing power and high performance are what help make next generation products versatile, connected devices, further demonstrating the impact of NXP’s IoT innovation that is changing the way people live, work and play.
Our customers have many decisions to make when designing their next generation products—from the level of security and user interface experience to product pricing. One of the more critical decisions happens early on and helps provide direction for the rest of the development process. First is selecting the right computing platform. Our customers may decide to use a system-on-module (SOM) or create their own chip-down design from the ground up.
NXP’s i.MX 7ULP Evaluation Kit (EVK), which includes design files and schematics, will get you started with valuable insight into board layout to achieve a 4-layer board design. For faster time to market we are confident that our group of early access partners and solutions supporting i.MX 7ULP enable secure, low-power designs in a variety of form factors.
Speaking of graphics, the i.MX 7ULP brings a flexible range of graphic options, providing versions of the i.MX 7ULP with and without hardware graphics accelerators. Both versions being pin-to-pin compatible make it easy to scale up and down and allow for different product tiers using the same design. If you need a graphics development environment, no problem. You can choose from partners like Crank Software or ByteSnap Design who can enable engineers to create brilliant, modern graphics for portable applications.
So, what are you waiting for—let’s get started and see just how quickly you can get your next low-power design to market.
Please explore our early access partners supporting i.MX 7ULP and discover the interactions you never thought possible.
SnapUI is a lightweight user interface development tool which streamlines the user interface (UI) prototyping and building process. Get started here.
Storyboard Embedded GUI Design and Development Software allows users to create rich GUIs rapidly for an embedded experience. Get started here.
Mario Centeno is the Marketing Manager for the Low Power i.MX team which includes the popular i.MX RT series and i.MX Ultra Low Power series. Prior to this role he served as part of the Microcontroller Strategy team and has a MBA from the Johnson Business school at Cornell.
