Hitex: i.MX8

The i.MX 8 CPU series offers a very broad and scalable spectrum for applications with its various versions. i.MX 8 offers everything from cost-efficient performance and embedded consumer and industrial applications to comprehensive audio functions and demanding graphics and virtualization tasks. TQ offers several modules, depending on the user's application requirements.

i.MX8M Mini and Nano

With the i.MX 8M Mini/Nano family, NXP offers a CPU family within the i.MX8 series for a reduced price and with scaled-back functions. The main difference between this CPU and its more powerful ‘brother’ i.MX 8M in terms of graphics and video interfaces is that there is only one display interface (MIPI-DSI) and one serial camera interface. The Mini and Nano have the same core architecture and are pin-compatible, but differ in their basic functions.

i.MX8M Mini

The i.MX 8M Mini uses the Cortex A53 core with up to 1.8 GHz. A Cortex-M4F with 400MHz is available to support real-time applications as well as security tasks of the CPU. The memory interface is 32 bit wide and supports LPDDR4, DDR4 and DDR3L.

In addition to the extended audio functions with 5x I²S (SAI), 20x 32-bit up to 384KHz with DSD512 and TDM support, 8-channel PDM microphone inputs, the processor offers comprehensive graphics capabilities. These include 2D and 3D graphics thanks to GCNanoUltra (GPU) as well as video decoding (1080p60 H.265, H.264, VP8, VP9) and encoding (1080p60 H.264, VP8) as hardware acceleration. It also features extensive security functions.

There are six CPU variants available. These range from single core and dual core to quad core, and include lite versions without video decoding and encoding.

In addition to the extensive audio functions, the main interfaces are available as follows:

1 x MIP DSI (Display Sensor Interface)
1 x MIPI CSI (Display Sensor Interface)
1 x PCIe 2.0
3 x SDIO/eMMC
2 x USB 2.0
1 x Gigabit Ethernet

i.MX8M Nano

The i.MX 8M Nano is essentially different in that it integrates a 750MHz Cortex-M7 with more power to support the CPU for real-time applications or security tasks. In addition, the memory interface is 16 bits wide, enabling a maximum memory expansion of two gigabytes. The GC7000UL serves as the Nano’s GPU.

To reduce costs, the design omits the video hardware acceleration and PCI. The Nano CPU was designed primarily for mobile applications. There are also six CPU variants as mentioned above, but the GPU is missing in the three lite versions.

All interfaces function depending on the availability of pin multiplexing. This results in a very high flexibility when designing mainboards, and thus the ability to achieve high efficiency and utilization of the CPU.