When we think about 50 billion connected devices by 20251, as an industry, we need to ensure that we implement the right balance of technologies to provide a personalized and productive experience to the end user. The end user could be a human being or another machine such as an automated building management system that is optimizing the energy efficiency and productivity of an entire ecosystem of devices. With the i.MX 9 series portfolio, we are prioritizing energy efficiency, security and fast local machine learning as the new essential technologies that will define the ways in which devices are used in the future. And today we’re pleased to announce our first of many products in the i.MX 9 series—the i.MX 93 applications processor family.
The i.MX 93 applications processor family is a launching pad into a new and completely scalable product portfolio that will span industrial, consumer electronics and IoT, and automotive processing. The i.MX 93 family has machine learning acceleration and we are proud to be the industry’s first implementation of the Arm® Ethos™-U65 microNPU as the neural network accelerator. Along with single- or dual-core Arm® Cortex®- A55 processor cores, the i.MX 93 family brings new levels of cost efficient, energy efficient and fast local inferencing for edge-based systems. Moreover, we're bringing forward the EdgeLock® secure enclave and we're continuing to build a roadmap of highly secured devices through our strategic partnership with Microsoft in the i.MX 93-CS products. It’s vital to provide the robust level of security that underpins the devices that we put into the market.
Systems that can process user or environmental inputs to make intelligent decisions locally with a high degree of accuracy are essential for the growth of the edge.
We have invited our Microsoft Azure Sphere colleagues, Halina McMaster, Partner Group Program Manager, and Kirsten Soelling, Program Manager, to share how the i.MX 93-CS applications processors with Azure Sphere will expand our roadmap of highly secured connected devices:
Halina McMaster, Microsoft Partner Group Program Manager
Today we are pleased to join NXP in sharing plans to add cloud-secured SoCs built with Azure Sphere to the i.MX 93 applications processor family. The i.MX 93 cloud-secured SoCs will expand the Azure Sphere-certified processor portfolio and will enable organizations to build innovative end-to-end IoT solutions designed to tackle high-value challenges like predictive maintenance, asset performance optimization, physical security and safety, and sustainability. The i.MX 93-CS processors with Azure Sphere are built with Microsoft Pluton enabled on the EdgeLock® secure enclave. Pluton is the hardware root of trust that enables the full Azure Sphere stack and lays the foundation for developing highly secured IoT devices. Every NXP SoC built with Azure Sphere includes the Linux-based Azure Sphere OS; secured over-the-air update infrastructure via the Azure Sphere cloud-based security service; and ongoing system updates and security improvements for more than 10 years. The versatility of the i.MX 93-CS applications processors and the secured Azure Sphere platform will make it easier and faster to bring innovation to market. The comprehensive Azure Sphere edge-to-cloud security will help you deploy devices with durable security that will deliver value over time.
Building your devices with Azure Sphere unlocks opportunity for you to invest in your area of expertise to drive innovation, expand your market share and nurture your brand. Let’s consider smart spaces, whether your focus is building connected workhorse equipment like HVAC systems or creating more specialty devices like intelligent air quality monitors. By selecting one of the cloud-secured SoCs built with Azure Sphere, you gain the opportunity to focus on your differentiated advantage. You can invest in improving product features instead of building and securing your operating system, hiring a security team to maintain it, and operating a global update system to securely deliver patches and application updates to your devices. With Azure Sphere, Microsoft does all of that for you. And, while Azure Sphere devices work with any enterprise cloud you choose, when you build your endpoint solutions with Azure Sphere, you can easily integrate the power and capabilities of Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, Stream Analytics, Digital Twins and Dynamics 365 applications to security-sensitive environments.
Most importantly, you can increase the market value of your IoT devices by enabling the full Azure Sphere security stack. We have leveraged deep security expertise across Microsoft to develop a clear view of IoT security requirements and built Azure Sphere with all of the properties necessary to withstand the complex threat landscape. Our approach to security is the key to every advantage Azure Sphere offers. Give your customers the confidence to deploy and connect your trustworthy devices knowing that Microsoft is helping keep each device secured and up-to-date over time. Innovation, no matter how valuable, is not durable without a foundation of security. Azure Sphere can help you future-proof your IoT innovation by providing a secured foundation for the devices you build.
Every Azure Sphere device connects to the Azure Sphere cloud services that are your conduit to the many security experts at Microsoft who are passionate about securing every device. Our teams constantly monitor the evolving threat landscape, develop updates and deploy security improvements to help keep your devices secured over time. Microsoft is fighting a sophisticated security battle—at scale—so that you don’t have to. We have designed and built a comprehensive edge-to-cloud security solution; we have dedicated experts researching, testing, and mitigating evolving threats; and we have created and continue to manage the infrastructure to distribute and apply critical updates on a global scale. We want you to be able to push the boundaries of innovation in your industry, your market and for your business—and delight your customers. Give your customers the confidence to connect everything when you create devices built with NXP processors and supported with the scale of Microsoft expertise in hardware, software, cloud and security.
As connected services and experiences grow more advanced, so do the security requirements. Your true competitive advantage lies in bringing a product to market that offers renewable, defense-in-depth security so that, in the event of a security incident, you can reduce the risk of operational disruption and maintain the credibility of your brand. Azure Sphere is built with multiple layers of protection so that it’s possible to limit the reach of an attack and remotely restore the health and security of a device with minimal downtime. When you build devices designed with comprehensive edge-to-cloud security, your customers can confidently connect any Azure Sphere device—from a simple remote sensor to business-critical equipment—with the knowledge that they can respond to and overcome threats, keeping their devices, data, environments and people protected for a long time to come.
Azure Sphere acts as a launchpad to help you get to market faster. When you build your devices with Azure Sphere-certified SoCs, you gain the advantage of a complete secured IoT platform: a managed, defense-in-depth OS; secured over-the-air (OTA) update infrastructure; ongoing Azure Sphere cloud services; and the full support of the security research, testing and development teams at Microsoft. What does this mean for your bottom line? It means faster time to market, lower total cost of development, lower total cost of ownership, reduced risk of operational disruption due to a security incident, and renewable security that protects your devices against the evolving threat landscape.
The Azure Sphere OS is purpose built to create an agile, highly composable and highly secured software environment that frees your team from the workload of building, managing and updating a full operating system. You can focus your resources—personnel, time and budget—on the aspects of product development that bring you the greatest return. Microsoft will manage the Azure Sphere System OS, including providing continual updates and improvements to keep your software environment secured over time so that your teams can focus on your application software and delivering the best possible experience for your customers. And the Azure Sphere OS allows you to leverage your existing development assets—applications, libraries, languages as well as incorporate new innovations like machine learning and AI.
To help you ensure your devices stay secured over time and continue to deliver value, Azure Sphere’s cloud-based service verifies device authenticity and health every day to validate that each Azure Sphere device is still in a secured state and can be trusted. The OTA update infrastructure enables you to securely manage your devices and software at scale and makes it possible to quickly update all devices with patches, improvements and upgrades including updates for your applications. Each part of the update process includes a robust rollback mechanism so you have confidence that your devices will be running and can stay running in the field. Secured, over-the-air update infrastructure can eliminate the need for in-person configuration processes—even for highly sensitive devices and equipment—and can dramatically reduce operational downtime and service disruption. For broadly distributed deployments such as smart elevators, electric vehicle charging stations, smart parking or connected appliances, having a secured update infrastructure can mean transformative savings, especially at a global scale.
Whatever your IoT objectives may be, to build devices that improve safety, reduce spending, waste an pursue sustainability, we want to contribute to your success, and we believe that security is the foundation for durable innovation. With every announcement—small or grand—we never fail to include our Azure Sphere mission: to empower every organization on the planet to connect and create secured and trustworthy IoT devices. This promise is what grounds our product vision and every aspect of the work our team does. We look forward to what you build and the new experiences you deliver with the i.MX 8ULP-CS family and the newly announced i.MX 93-CS applications processor family.
#NXPConnects #AzureIoT #AzureSphere #edgeprocessing
For more information: i.MX 93 family press release
Amanda McGregor leads product innovation for NXP applications processors. She has driven the definition, enablement and adoption of i.MX applications processors for more than a decade and led the development of NXP 14LPC FinFET applications processors for consumer, industrial and IoT applications.
