Neural Processing Unit

The Gateworks Venice SBCs that are using the i.MX8M Plus processors have a built in Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for machine learning.

• All GW74xx use the i.MX8M Plus processor
• Any GW71xx, GW72xx and GW73xx using a GW702x SOM module will use the i.MX8M Plus processor

The NPU operatines up to 2.25 TOPS.

NXP uses the term eIQ, which is 'edge intelligence'. NXP has a eIQ ML software environment for neural networks (NN).

With eIQ, there are 4 inference engines:

1. OpenCV
2. Arm® NN
3. Arm CMSIS-NN
4. TensorFlow Lite

Some of the default NXP Yocto software has examples in the directory /usr/bin/tensorflow-lite-2.4.0/examples

PyeIQ is demo software written on top of the eIQ Machine Learning software environment. This Python code provides python classes to provide a simple and efficient baseline to get started.

• ​https://pypi.org/project/pyeiq/

• apt install pip
  pip3 install pyeiq
  

• PyeIQ Examples are shown here: ​https://community.nxp.com/t5/Blog/PyeIQ-3-x-Release-User-Guide/ba-p/1305998

More information can also be found on the NXP eIQ community page:

• eIQ Edge Intelligence Starter PDF: ​https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/fact-sheet/EIQ-FS.pdf
• eIQ Edge Intelligence Community Page: ​https://community.nxp.com/t5/eIQ-Machine-Learning-Software/bd-p/eiq

Other links:

• ​Using i.MX 8M Plus Applications Processors to Enable AI in Factory