NXP Unveils i.MX RT600 Series Arm Cortex-M33 + Audio DSP Crossover Processor

A little over a year ago, NXP introduces their first crossover processor that blurs the line between real-time capabilities of microcontrollers and higher performance of application processors with NXP i.MX RT1050 processor equipped with a Cortex-M7 core clocked at up to 700 MHz.

The company has now announced another model with lower power consumption. NXP i.MX RT600 series comes with a Cortex M33 core clocked at up to 300MHz, a Cadence Tensillica HiFi 4 audio DSP, and up to 4.5MB shared SRAM.

Main features of NXP i.MX RT685 crossover processor:

CPU Core – Arm Cortex-M33 up to 300 MHz
DSP – Tensilica Hi-Fi 4 up to 600 MHz
Memory
- Up to 4.5 MB on-chip RAM
- 128KB DSP TCM, 128 KB DSP Cache
Storage
- 96KB ROM on-chip
- 2x SDIO with 1x supporting eMMC5.0 w/ HS400
- 1x Octal/Quad SPI up to 100MB/s
Peripherals
- 2x DMA Engines with 35 channels each
- 1x USB high speed host/device with PHY
- 1x SPI up to 50 MHz
- Serial Interfaces – 8x FlexComm interfaces with support for up to 8x SPI, 8x I2C, 8x UART, 4x I2S channels (total 8 instances)
- 1x I3C Master/Slave interface
- Up to 8-channel DMIC (Digital MIC)
- Up to 228 GPIO’s
- 1x 12-bit ADC up to 1 Msps
- 1x ACMP analog caparator
- 1x Capacitive touch sensor
- 1x Temperature sensor
- Timers – 32-bit SCTimer, 24-bit multi-rate timer, 64-bit OS event timer, 5x GP timers, 2x watchdogs
Security – SRAM PUF, RNG, AES256, SHA-2, Secure Boot, RNG
ACMP
Reduced-Power Modes – Sleep mode, deep-sleep mode and deep power-down mode
Package – VFBGA176
Operating Temperature – 0 to 70°C
Manufacturing Process – 28nm FD-SOI technology

NXP I.MX RT600 family targets audio / IoT applications such as audio subsystems, ML-based edge applications, voice recognition consumer electronics, and voice UI-enabled IoT devices.

NXP i.MX RT600 is still at the pre-production stage, and AFAIK the company did not provide any launch date. Eventually more details should surface in the product page.

Thanks to Lucas for the tip

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.