Industrial, IoT and Networking Services

Supported Lifecycle Engagements

• Pre-Selection – Example: If some form of technical or feasibility analysis needs to be performed that requires an inordinate amount of labor, then this would be a good project. Generally, NXP SoC has been selected, but before any final commitment this analysis could be performed to reduce the number of unknowns in a project.
• Post-Selection Architecture – Advice/Assistance from NXP at this stage could leverage just one or two capabilities in an NXP SoC that yields highly leveraged/profitable results. The most leveraged time in a project is at this stage.
• Block Diagram – Pre schematic stage – in this area, the architecture is known, but is being reduced to functional blocks – both in the physical domain (how things connect) as well as in the functional domain (like a SW block diagram or a data-flow diagram). This is a highly leveraged area as well, and one small addition from NXP could make a large difference in the overall project.
• Schematic/Layout Review – Very typical for NXP
• Software – NXP can assist at nearly all levels of SW development, provided that NXP involvement has some connection to the SoC. For example GUI design is not particularly valuable for NXP to participate for either NXP or the customer.
• Late Stage Assistance – Often, customer teams have moved on but there is a need for more SW development. The most common would be an operating system upgrade.

Supported Operating Systems for Services Projects

• NXP enabled OS – For these OS, NXP services can take the operating systems from NXP archives/GIT and place them on the customer custom board according to the customer custom requirements/testing. This frees the customer teams to focus on DIFFERENTIATING features rather than the same issues that NXP has likely already solved.
  • Android
  • FreeRTOS
  • Linux
  • MQX
  • Zephyr
• Other RTOS – While NXP would recommend that customers engage with the RTOS primary support company, there are instances when NXP services can help. For example, there exist some NXP peripherals that the RTOS maker cannot justify supporting due to volume/focus that NXP would add RTOS support.

Supported Technologies and Technology Stack

• i.MX8 and i.MX8X SafeAssure
• i.MX8QM eCockpit without hypervisor
• ASK SIB for LS1043A/LS1046A/LX2160A
• Internet packet Offload systems – these bypass Linux stacks and supercharge performance (latency, throughput, total consumed MIPS).
  • NXP DPAA system
  • NXP software fast path system (does not require specialty hardware)
• Specialty Concepts (Licensing/Testing/etc.) - Customers are always seeking to differentiate their products. For most customers, differentiating means a unique PCB running unique software using NXP SoC. However, NXP has engaged with customers who need another level of differentiation that can reach into the NXP SoC development process. None of these are for the faint-of-heart, but for some customers this can open up large opportunities. Examples of specialty concepts performed are semiconductor test program licensing, production software retargeting (customizing ASK for 5G backhaul for example), additional SoC stresses and test, custom SoC marking, FMEDA custom analysis, and even partial or entire SoC licensing. Rather than assume something is not possible, NXP would encourage customers to contact us to explore options.

Success Stories – with when in product lifecycle NXP was engaged

• Re-Architect Product To Eliminate Counterfeiting.
  • Customer had several million lines of code running on a 16 layer board. The board was being counterfeited and the customer needed a way to protect their SW investment.
  • NXP engagement was a series of 90 minute calls where both companies iterated on concepts for security. NXP was able to assist by advising on the use and deployment of security measures using the NXP hardware security built into NXP SoC.
  • Explored topics were: Key granularity (company wide, product line wide, product, SKU, unit-by-unit), key invalidation, key parts to encrypt-decrypt, boot speed, field update complexity, etc.
  • Customer was thrilled w the consulting and engaged NXP to complete the work that was jointly architected.
• NXP hardware security built into NXP SoC.
  • Explored topics were: Key granularity (company wide, product line wide, product, SKU, unit-by-unit), key invalidation, key parts to encrypt-decrypt, boot speed, field update complexity, etc.
  • Customer was thrilled w the consulting and engaged NXP to complete the work that was jointly architected.
• Linux Upgrade to Eliminate CVE
  • MC860 Linux Upgrade
  • Customer had a 2.6.32 Linux with several hundred CVE running on an MPC860 (very old) processor. This looked like a new impossible project in the estimation of the customer.
  • With NXP, the customer determined that jumping from 2.6.32 to kernel 5.4 would eliminate all but one CVE and that CVE was on a droppable Linux module.
  • NXP received several boards from the customer and completed the project ahead of time and on budget.
  • So… no matter how old, difficult, and forgotten you might think you project/part/SW could be, contact NXP.
• Android 11 and 14 Platform Creation
  • Customer modernizing an “old world” GUI to an Android GUI on specialty product for supporting industrial devices.
  • Customer wanted to get to Android without staffing for Android development and turned to NXP for assistance.
  • NXP, for MUCH LESS than a single full time employee, was able to port this large OS to the customer platform, test it, and assist customer in final issues prior to general market launch.
  • After launch, customer will be able to reduce spend with NXP to a modest maintenance and support fee and the customers R&D spend returns to pre-project levels boosting the customer income statement due to the spend being transient. As well, there were no painful staffing decisions.
• Mini-SDK Creation and Support
  • Customer used three older e500mc SoCs used on several projects and wanted to combine these together into a single software development kit (SDK) and modernize the kernel.
  • NXP did exactly what the customer wanted and the project was accomplished on budget and on time.
• Secure Disk Drive
  • IMPORTANT: If you purchase “secure” disk drives from another country… or you don’t have 100% provenance of all the components and software… you are setting up for a disaster.
  • This customer knew that and using the NXP one-chip security HW system and dm-crypt (Linux), NXP architected with the customer a secure disk drive that was 100% under customer control.
  • NXP created a flexible API for the customer both USB and RNDIS attached drives. The API was multi-user.
  • NXP then developed a key store mechanism such that the disk drive can actually store its own unlock codes. The drive used a combination of assymetric and symmetric keys for optimum performance.
  • NXP then optimized system performance and achieve a MB/s rate that was about 50% of the slowest piece of hardware. This metric met the customers needs and we completed the project.
  • Oh – and this was USB 3.0 powered! No wall warts were required.
• Add NXP Probe to 3rd party Development Software
  • Customer wanted to use 3rd party development/debug software but the 3rd party did not support the NXP SoC
  • Customer contracted with the 3rd party to add necessary hooks for the NXP probe and SoC and update their SW API
  • NXP was contracted to utilize that API and write the necessary glue logic to enable the NXP CodeWarrior TAP probe into the 3rd party software.
  • This project went way over budget and took much longer than expected, but NXP did not charge the customer any more money. Not everything goes perfectly and this was a great example to put on the web. However, NXP did complete the project to the customer’s satisfaction
• Almost Ready to Market Small Business Router
  • Customer knew that NXP is an expert company at supporting multiple CPU types, on multiple SoC, on multiple boards, with multiple kernels.
  • Customer engaged NXP to architect and jointly craft a mostly seamless and scalable router product line that spanned a wide range of performance needs.
  • NXP delivered this project which did end up scaling a router system across LS1024A, LS1043A, and LS1046A products which were matched to the customer requirements.
  • All the customer had to do was “skin/brand” the device, do the final OEM style testing and then perform standard go to market activities.

Typical Engagement Steps:

• Engage with NXP sales channel and the services team to make sure both parties believe a good project can be scoped.
• Create a set of requirements, that when finished, will produce the output the customer would desire.
• NXP will scope and timeline the requirements. This step, and the requirements elicitation generally requires some iteration.
• After project is fully understood and scoped, NXP will price it for the customer. Often times this produces a couple more iterations to scope the project correctly to the budget.
• NXP consulting agreement is signed. It is typical that with NXP, since NXP enhances SW that works with NXP silicon, that NXP is the source for the agreements.
• Once an agreement is signed/clicked (yes this is common), the a PO is issued for the full amount with any payment milestones as PO milestones.
• At this point, NXP will have a kick-off call, but the project is underway.
• Most of the remaining steps are custom on a per project basis but should be typical for outsourcing project.

Our products

We develop and maintain the following solutions on i.MX:

• i.MX8 and i.MX8X SafeAssure
• i.MX8QM eCockpit without hypervisor
• 5G CPE (coming soon)
• ASK SIB for LS1043A/LS1046A/LX2160A
• ASK BHR
• Key Management