14 May 2020, Horw, Switzerland: Toradex is now bringing Torizon, its easy-to-use industrial Linux software platform, to its System on Modules (SoMs) based on the i.MX 8X applications processors from NXP®. Toradex offers the i.MX 8X-based SoMs in two form factors: the small Colibri iMX8X and the powerful Apalis iMX8X, with optional ECC memory. Toradex was among the first few partners to be part of NXP’s Early Access Program for the i.MX 8X applications processors and was shipping early samples of the Colibri iMX8X in 2018.
Additionally, the Colibri iMX8X is now AWS-certified and available in the AWS Device Catalog, based on certification requirements for Amazon IoT Greengrass. This certification is part of the AWS Device Qualification Program.
i.MX 8X-based SoMs are ideal for demanding applications requiring the highest reliability and power-efficient processing. Advanced security and safety features make these SoMs safety-certifiable. The SoMs come with up to four 64-bit Armv8 Cortex-A35 cores. Compared to the Cortex-A7, the Cortex-A35 can deliver up to 40% faster performance — and at the same clock speed — while consuming 10% less power. Compared to the Cortex-A53, it uses up to 32% less power at the same clock speed.
The Vivante GPU supports OpenGL™ ES, OpenCL™ and Vulkan® for modern graphics, or to accelerate such computing tasks as deep learning inference. The SoMs are also available with onboard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, supporting dual-band 802.11ac 2×2 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.
An advanced, 28-nanometer FDSOI silicon process was chosen to build the SoC to increase MTBF and decrease soft error rates, which is crucial for critical applications. The additional Cortex-M4 core permits the offloading of critical real-time or safety tasks from the main operating system.
Toradex now provides Torizon, an open-source, embedded, industrial Linux platform for these i.MX 8X-based SoMs. Torizon provides a modern development platform, allowing developers to focus on their applications instead of on building a Linux operating system. Torizon offers integration with Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. It comes with an automotive-grade update client for simple and secure over-the-air updates. Toradex’s high-quality reference images for the Yocto Project are also available for free. In addition, Android and QNX are available via the Toradex Partner network for i.MX 8X-based SoMs.
With the AWS certification for the Colibri iMX8X, developing cloud-connected devices that use Amazon IoT Greengrass and other AWS offerings is now simpler.
The Colibri iMX8X is pin-compatible with the complete Colibri family, including SoMs based on the NXP® i.MX 6, i.MX 7, i.MX 6ULL and NVIDIA® Tegra SoCs. Similarly, the Apalis iMX8X is compatible with SoMs featuring the i.MX 8QuadMax, i.MX 6 and NVIDIA TK1 SoCs.
Toradex’s Colibri and Apalis SoMs are an ideal fit in applications such as healthcare, transportation, industrial automation, testing and measurement, and smart cities.