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| 1 | +# NXP eIQ Neutron Backend |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +This subtree contains the ExecuTorch Backend implementation for the |
| 4 | +[eIQ® Neutron Neural Processing Unit (NPU)](https://www.nxp.com/applications/technologies/ai-and-machine-learning/eiq-neutron-npu:EIQ-NEUTRON-NPU). |
| 5 | + |
| 6 | +The eIQ® Neutron NPU is a highly scalable accelerator core architecture providing machine learning (ML) acceleration, |
| 7 | +able to support common and critical tasks for edge AI such as anomaly detection, speech recognition, |
| 8 | +image classification, object detection, facial recognition, image segmentation, and generative AI use cases like |
| 9 | +large and small language models (LLMs & SLMs) and text-to-speech (TTS). |
| 10 | +The architecture provides power and performance optimized NPUs integrated with NXP's broad portfolio of |
| 11 | +microcontrollers and applications processors. |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +The eIQ Neutron NPUs offer support for a wide variety of neural network types such as CNN, RNN, TCN and Transformer |
| 14 | +networks, as well as the ability to adapt and scale to new model architectures, topologies and layer types introduced |
| 15 | +to AI workloads. ML application development with the eIQ Neutron NPU is fully supported by the |
| 16 | +[eIQ machine learning software development environment](https://www.nxp.com/design/design-center/software/eiq-ml-development-environment/eiq-toolkit-for-end-to-end-model-development-and-deployment:EIQ-TOOLKIT). |
| 17 | +The eIQ AI SW Stack provides a streamlined development experience for developers and end-users of NXP products. |
| 18 | +eIQ extensions connect broader AI ecosystems to the edge, such as the NVIDIA TAO extension, which enables developers to bring AI models trained and fine-tuned with TAO to NXP-powered edge devices. |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +## Supported NXP platforms |
| 22 | +At this moment following eIQ® Neutron NPU variants and NXP platforms are supported by the NXP eIQ Neutron Backend: |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +* **eIQ Neutron N3-64**, available on [i.MX RT700](https://www.nxp.com/products/i.MX-RT700) |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +In the future the NXP eIQ Neutron Backend will be extended to support [i.MX 9 Application Processors](https://www.nxp.com/products/processors-and-microcontrollers/arm-processors/i-mx-applications-processors/i-mx-9-processors:IMX9-PROCESSORS) |
| 27 | +with eIQ Neutron NPU, like the [i.MX 95](https://www.nxp.com/products/iMX95). |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | + |
| 30 | +## Layout |
| 31 | +TBD |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +## Backend Status and Maturity |
| 34 | +**Current Status:** Prototype Quality |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +The eIQ Neutron NPU Backend should be considered as prototype quality at this moment. Subject to significant changes and |
| 37 | +improvements. NXP and the ExecuTorch community is actively developing this codebase. |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +## Help & Improvements |
| 40 | +If you have problems or questions or have suggestions for ways to make |
| 41 | +implementation and testing better, please reach out to the NXP representative for the SoC you are interested in using, |
| 42 | +or your distribution partner contact. |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +Or raise the issue here on ExecuTorch GitHub, label it with `module: nxp` and our ML team will address it on a priority-basis. |
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