Virtium Embedded Artists has introduced a system-on-module (SOM) that mixes an NXP Semiconductors i.MX 8M Mini system-on-chip with a DEEPX DX-M1 neural coprocessor delivering a claimed 25 tera-operations per second (TOPS) of minimum-precision laptop for on-device machine studying and synthetic intelligence (ML and AI) purposes.
“By bringing the iMX8M Mini DX-M1 to market, Virtium Embedded Artists is assembly surging demand from edge and IoT [Internet of Things] gadget producers for a ready-made {hardware} platform for low-power imaginative and prescient AI processing and embedded management,” says Anders Rosvall of his firm’s newest design. “Now OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers] can get to market sooner and extra simply with new product designs which supply the additional worth that imaginative and prescient AI brings to industrial, mobility, safety, and edge computing purposes.”
When you’re searching for 25 TOPS of compute in a 5W energy envelope, the iMX8M Mini DX-M1 SOM claims to ship precisely that. (📷: Virtium Embedded Artists)
The guts of the corporate’s iMX8M Mini DX-M1 SOM, which makes use of a SODIMM type issue to hook up with a suitable provider board, is NXP’s i.MX 8M Mini system-on-chip; this offers it 4 Arm Cortex-A53 cores working at 1.8GHz and a Cortex-M4 core working at 400MHz for real-time workloads. The chip additionally consists of 2D and 3D graphics acceleration, a 1080p-capable video codec subsystem, and is linked to 2GB of LPDDR4 reminiscence.
Alongside the principle system-on-chip is a neural coprocessor, the DEEPX DX-M1. This reaches a claimed 25 tera-operations per second (TOPS) at minimal precision with a mean loaded energy consumption of simply 5W — and consists of 4GB of LPDDR4 reminiscence of its personal, separate to the 2GB of LPDDR4 supplied to the principle CPU. For initiatives the place just some techniques might have on-device acceleration for machine studying and synthetic intelligence workloads, the SOM can also be out there with out the DX-M1 — whereas an industrial-grade variant drops the CPU’s most working frequency from 1.8GHz to 1.6GHz with a view to supply an prolonged working temperature vary of -40–85°C (-40–185°F).
Extra info on the module is obtainable on the Virtium Embedded Artists web site; whereas the corporate is accepting orders, nevertheless, it had not made pricing publicly out there on the time of writing. Shipments are anticipated to start in August, the corporate has confirmed.
