The Linux kernel continues seeing more open-source kernel drivers emerge for supporting different AI accelerators / NPUs. The newest open-source driver breaking cover today is from NXP and is for enabling their Neutron neural processing unit.
The NXP Neutron NPU is designed for machine learning acceleration for edge AI applications. This Neutron NPU is found with select NXP SoCs like the i.MX95.
The Neutron NPU is made up of a RISC-V core running on proprietary firmware, one or more Neutron cores, dedicated fast memory, and a DMA engine for handling data transfers.
For going along with this proposed Neutron accel driver is also an open-source user-space library as well as a custom LiteRT delegate for running LiteRT (formerly TensorFlow-Lite) workloads on the NPU with capable NXP SoCs.
Those interested in this open-source NXP Neutron NPU driver now undergoing code review for possible inclusion in a future version of the Linux kernel can see today’s patch series.
