NXP i.MX RT Series – Bridging the gap between applications processors and microcontrollers l First Look Series

Welcome to First Look, brought to you by DigiKey and NXP. The i.MX RT Series from NXP is based on an Arm Cortex-M core with real-time operation, and is the industry’s first crossover processor, bridging the gap between the performance of low power applications processors and high performance MCU-level usability all at an affordable price. NXP’s i.MX RT Series crossover processor delivers the highest possible compute performance—a performance that’s higher than any other Cortex-M7 product. In addition to a 20 nanosecond interrupt latency and low dynamic power consumption, it also offers a high level of security thanks to AES-128, high assurance boot, and execution from encrypted Flash. When used in a smart connected IoT product, the i.MX RT Series delivers tailored functionality and performance, due to its highly integrated nature. It offers a comprehensive multimedia platform, which enables customers to design advanced GUIs and HMIs, supported by a 2D graphics acceleration engine, parallel camera sensor interface, and an LCD display controller. The i.MX RT Series from NXP not only boasts integration improvements and an increase in performance, but also facilitates an ease-of-use for MCU customers. The time, cost, and complexity risks to the product development cycle by switching to a higher level operating system can potentially be avoided entirely. Customers can reap the i.MX RT Series’ benefits, and still leverage their current tool chain. The MCUXpresso SDK is an extensive software suite designed to streamline application development with NXP’s i.MX RT crossover processors and other Arm Cortex-M core-based microcontrollers. The MCUXpresso SDK includes robust peripheral drivers, stacks, and middleware, as well as reference software, and more. Customers can also take advantage of rapid and easy prototyping via Free RTOS, SDK, ARM mbed, and the global ARM ecosystem, as well as faster development by means of the low-cost evaluation kit and single voltage input, which simplifies power circuit design. See you next time on First Look.