NXP & NVIDIA Join Forces for AI Deployment on Edge Devices
In a groundbreaking move set to revolutionize artificial intelligence (AI) on edge devices, NXP Semiconductors and NVIDIA have entered into a collaboration that marries the best of both worlds: NVIDIA’s sophisticated trained AI models with NXP’s extensive range of edge processing devices. This collaboration is heralded through the integration of NVIDIA TAO Toolkit within NXP’s eIQ® machine learning development environment, a first-of-its-kind initiative aimed at streamlining AI development for edge computing.
Edge computing is rapidly evolving, driven by the need for more efficient processing close to where data is generated rather than relying on centralized cloud-based systems. This need has propelled the development of AI models tailored for edge deployment, presenting a unique set of challenges for developers. Recognizing these challenges, NXP and NVIDIA have joined hands to offer a seamless solution that eases the training and deployment of AI models on edge devices.
The heart of this collaboration lies in the integration of NVIDIA TAO APIs into NXP’s eIQ machine learning development platform. NVIDIA’s TAO offers a low-code AI framework that simplifies the customization of trained AI models for specific applications through transfer learning. On the other side, NXP’s eIQ platform facilitates the direct deployment of these tailored AI models onto edge devices, leveraging a suite of software, inference engines, neural network compilers, and optimized libraries. This synergy not only accelerates the AI development process but also grants developers access to a repository of pre-tested AI models, ready for deployment across NXP’s extensive portfolio of edge processors.
Charles Dachs, NXP’s Senior Vice President and General Manager for Industrial and IoT Edge, emphasized the significance of this collaboration, stating, “AI innovation will define the future of the smart connected world.” He further highlighted the mutual benefits of this partnership, combining NVIDIA’s AI model training and testing prowess with NXP’s expertise in industrial and IoT edge. The result is a streamlined process for customers to bring their AI initiatives to fruition rapidly and effortlessly.
Deepu Talla, NVIDIA’s Vice President of Robotics and Edge Computing, mirrored this enthusiasm by acknowledging how NVIDIA TAO simplifies the creation and deployment of AI models. He noted, “This collaboration brings highly accurate, optimized AI models tuned with NVIDIA TAO and plugged seamlessly into NXP’s eIQ development environment to accelerate edge AI deployments.”
The eIQ machine learning software development platform stands out as a versatile tool in NXP’s arsenal, allowing the deployment of AI algorithms across its broad spectrum of microcontrollers and microprocessors. Fully integrated with NXP’s MCUXpresso SDK and Yocto Project Linux development environments, the eIQ platform offers developers a comprehensive framework for developing system-level applications efficiently.
With the direct integration of NVIDIA TAO APIs into the eIQ development platform, developers now have access to a unified platform for AI model training, optimization, and deployment. NVIDIA TAO’s API-driven workflow leverages a collection of pre-trained models and transfer learning techniques, enabling the creation of custom AI models. It also offers optimizations such as model pruning to enhance inference throughput, further boosting the efficiency of AI applications on edge devices.
This partnership between NXP and NVIDIA represents a pivotal leap towards the future of edge computing, bridging the gap between high-level AI model training and practical deployment on edge devices. With this collaboration, the path is now paved for developers to bring sophisticated AI solutions to the forefront of the smart, connected world with unprecedented ease and efficiency.
