NXP IoT Platform Links ARM/Linux Layerscape SoCs to Cloud

By Eric Brown

NXP’s “EdgeScale” suite of secure edge computing device management tools help deploy and manage Linux devices running on LSx QorIQ Layerscape SoCs, and connects them to cloud services.

NXP has added an EdgeScale suite of secure edge computing tools and services to its Linux-based Layerscape SDK for six of its networking oriented LSx QorIQ Layerscape SoCs. These include the quad-core, 1.6 GHz Cortex-A53 QorIQ LS1043A, which last year received Ubuntu Core support, as well as the octa-core, Cortex-A72 LS2088a (see farther below).

Simplified EdgeScale architecture
(click image to enlarge)The cloud-based IoT suite is designed to remotely deploy, manage, and update edge computing devices built on Layerscape SoCs. EdgeScale bridges edge nodes, sensors, and other IoT devices to cloud frameworks, automating the provisioning of software and updates to remote embedded equipment. EdgeScale can be used to deploy container applications and firmware updates, as well as build containers and generate firmware.

The technology leverages the NXP Trust Architecture already built into Layerscape SoCs, which offers Hardware Root of Trust features. These include secure boot, secure key storage, manufacturing protection, hardware resource isolation, and runtime tamper detection.

The EdgeScale suite provides three levels of management: a “point-and-click” dashboard, a Command-Line-Interface (CLI), and the RESTful API, which enables “integration with any cloud computing framework,” as well as greater UI customization. The platform supports Ubuntu, Yocto, OpenWrt, or “any custom Linux distribution.”

Detailed EdgeScale architecture (above) and feature list (below)
(click images to enlarge)EdgeScale supports cloud frameworks including Amazon’s AWS Greengrass, Alibaba’s Aliyun, Google Cloud, and Microsoft’s Azure IoT Edge. The latter was part of a separate announcement released in conjunction with the EdgeScale release that said that all Layerscape SoCs were being enabled with “secure execution for Azure IoT Edge computing running networking, data analytics, and compute-intensive machine learning applications.”

A year ago, NXP announced a Modular IoT Framework, which was described as a set of pre-integrated NXP hardware and software for IoT, letting customers mix and match technologies with greater assurance of interoperability. When asked how this was related to EdgeScale, Sam Fuller, head of system solutions for NXP’s digital networking group, replied: “EdgeScale is designed to manage higher level software that could have a role of processing the data and managing the communication to/from devices built from the Modular IoT Framework.”

LS102A block diagram
(click image to enlarge)The EdgeScale suite supports the following QorIQ Layerscape processors:

• LS102A — 80 0MHz single-core, Cortex-A53 with 1 W power consumption found on F&S’ efus A53LS module
• LS1028A — dual-core ARMv8 with Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN)
• LS1043A — 1.6 GHz quad-core, Cortex-A53 with 1 0GbE support, found on the QorIQ LS1043A 10G Residential Gateway Reference Design and the X-ES XPedite6401 XMC/PrPMC mezzanine module
• LS1046A — quad-core, Cortex-A72 with dual 10 GbE support (also available in dual-core LS1026A model)
• LS1088a — 1.5 GHz octa-core, Cortex-A53 with dual 10 GbE support, which is also supported on the XPedite6401
• LS2088a — 2.0 GHz octa-core, Cortex-A72 with 128-bit NEON-based SIMD engine for each core, plus a 10GbE XAUI Fat Pipe interface or 4x 10GBASE-KR — found on X-ES XPedite6370 SBC.

Further information

NXP’s EdgeScale will be available by the end of the month. More information may be found on its EdgeScale product page.

NXP Semiconductors | www.nxp.com

This article originally appeared on LinuxGizmos.com on March 16.

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