Q: How do MCX MCUs fit in with the existing NXP products like i.MX application processors, i.MX RT Crossover MCUs, Kinetis and LPC?

p>NXP has one of the broadest offerings of Arm ® -based products. The MCX portfolio extends the existing Kinetis and LPC MCU offerings. When higher performance is needed and/or off-chip flash is desired, i.MX RT Crossover MCUs are the recommended devices. Beyond the crossover portfolio, i.MX applications processors offer even higher performance and support open operating systems like Linux OS.

Question 1

What is the MCX Portfolio?

Accepted Answer

Building on the strength of more than 20 years of industry-leading Kinetis and LPC portfolios, the MCX portfolio debuts a new generation of scalable, secure and developer-focused microcontrollers. The Arm^® Cortex^®-M based MCX portfolio is purpose-built on a common foundation of core technologies that support vast industrial and IoT use cases. These 32-bit, flash-based microcontrollers provide expanded product capabilities with memory scalability and a broad package offering. A simplified system design offers optimal enablement and intelligent peripherals for the intelligent edge including: machine learning, wireless, voice, motor control, analog and more. The portfolio also features the first instantiation of NXP’s new, specialized neural processing unit (NPU) for accelerating inference at the edge, delivering up to 30x faster machine learning throughput compared to a CPU core alone.

The new MCX MCU portfolio features four new series of devices supported by NXP’s widely adopted MCUXpresso suite of software and development tools to simplify product development.

The MCX N Advanced series is designed for secure, intelligent applications, with families that include an integrated EdgeLock^® secure subsystem and dedicated NPU with a high efficiency compute architecture for real-time inference.
The MCX A Essential series is optimized to provide critical functionality for a broad range of applications where cost constraints and time to market are key considerations.
The MCX W Wireless series offers low-power narrowband connectivity, including Bluetooth^® Low Energy. Designed to simplify adding wireless connectivity to IoT devices, its energy-efficient radio helps extend the battery life of small connected systems.
The MCX L Ultra-Low Power series is designed for power-critical applications. With one of the industry’s lowest dynamic power consumption offerings, these devices can help extend battery life significantly compared to traditional MCUs.

Machine learning and run-time inference will be supported by NXP’s eIQ^® ML software development environment. Developers can utilize the easy-to-use tools offered by eIQ to train ML models targeting either the NPU or the CPU core and deploy them on the MCU. MCX families that are built following NXP’s security-by-design approach will offer a secure boot with an immutable root-of-trust, hardware-accelerated cryptography and, on select families, a built-in EdgeLock^® secure subsystem.

Question 2

How will the Kinetis and LPC portfolios be impacted by the MCX announcement?

Accepted Answer

The MCX portfolio is not a replacement for Kinetis and LPC portfolios. MCX is a new NXP portfolio that was purpose-built based on our rich history and knowledge of microcontrollers. Our Kinetis and LPC portfolios have been experiencing record demand and are still relevant devices in our industry.

Question 3

Will it be easy to migrate from existing NXP MCUs to MCX?

Accepted Answer

Just like Kinetis and LPC, MCX MCUs will be supported by the widely-downloaded MCUXpresso software and tools. Existing Kinetis and LPC users will find the MCX Software Development Kit (SDK) within MCUXpresso to be very similar, with the difference being at the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL); the rest of the drivers are identical.

Question 4

How do MCX MCUs fit in with the existing NXP products like i.MX application processors, i.MX RT Crossover MCUs, Kinetis and LPC?

Accepted Answer

p>NXP has one of the broadest offerings of Arm^®-based products. The MCX portfolio extends the existing Kinetis and LPC MCU offerings. When higher performance is needed and/or off-chip flash is desired, i.MX RT Crossover MCUs are the recommended devices. Beyond the crossover portfolio, i.MX applications processors offer even higher performance and support open operating systems like Linux OS.

Question 5

What is the NXP Neural Processing Unit (NPU)?

Accepted Answer

The NXP NPU is a specialized computation core that implements control and arithmetic logic necessary to execute machine learning algorithms.

The NXP NPU is designed to deliver up to 30x faster machine learning throughput compared to a CPU core alone. It is an Internal NXP development that provides flexibility to tune the NPU to better meet our customer needs and provides the ability to offer better ongoing support for changing applications and operator support needs when deployed.

The software support is unified over multiple generations and device portfolios with the eIQ^® ML SW development environment, creating consistent enablement and support solutions for our customers.

Question 6

What is the NXP EdgeLock ^® secure subsystem?

Accepted Answer

The EdgeLock secure subsystem (ELS) in select MCX families comprises the immutable core security functionality. It is part of the silicon root of trust and features side-channel protected cryptographic acceleration engines, key management, and device attestation.

Pre-configured security and key management policies enable device makers to simplify the path to certification and avoid costly mistakes and save development time.

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