Compact CoM launched for intelligent vision and AI inference with real-time control

27-08-2025 | Advantech | Industrial

Advantech has announced the arrival of two new compact CoM in the AOM series: the AOM-5521 SMARC and AOM-2521 OSM. Both modules employ the advanced capabilities of the NXP i.MX 95 processor family, featuring a multi-domain architecture with up to six Arm Cortex-A55 cores operating at up to 2GHz with a dedicated 2-TOPS NPU optimised for Linux-based edge applications. They are specifically designed to improve intelligent vision, AI inference, and real-time control in next-generation industrial automation, medical systems, and other IoT applications.

The AOM-5521 and AOM-2521 modules, powered by the NXP i.MX 95 processor delivers outstanding processing performance ideal for low power, scalable AI, and high-speed connectivity in demanding edge environments. The processor features up to six Cortex-A55 cores, an NXP eIQ Neutron NPU providing up to 2 TOPS of sparse model performance, and robust I/O options including 10GbE.

It also surpasses ASIL-B/SIL-2 functional safety standards and incorporates an Arm Cortex-M7 CPU for real-time domain applications, along with a Cortex-M33 CPU for critical system safety tasks. Compared to previous generations, the i.MX 95 provides four times the machine learning performance, double the data throughput, and 15% greater power efficiency.

The i.MX 95 integrates an NXP ISP able to handle up to 500mp/s from eight image sensors, with support for advanced features like RGB-IR and HDR. A built-in 4K VPU allows 4K30P H.265/H.264 encoding and decoding, managing up to 32 simultaneous video streams.

Graphics performance is improved by the Arm Mali G310 3D GPU, supporting OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.2, and OpenCL 3.0 key enablers for demanding machine vision applications. A dedicated 2D GPU independently drives 4K displays with multi-stream layering capabilities.

A built-in NXP eIQ Neutron NPU delivers up to 2 TOPS and works in tandem with the ISP, VPU, and GPU to accelerate and optimise machine vision workloads. Combined, these components allow exceptional performance for edge AI and vision systems.

Support for the NXP eIQ Toolkit enables developers to use open-source and proprietary tools within the SDK and Yocto development environments, streamlining the creation of full system-level applications.

The AOM-5521 and AOM-2521 CoMs provide advanced connectivity with 1 x 10GbE and 2 x 1GbE ports, all supporting TSN to fulfil high-speed networking demands, ideal for industrial gateways and networking solutions.

They also include a rich set of industrial I/O, such as 2 x CAN-FD ports essential for real-time communication in industrial automation and control systems.

For high-speed expansion, the modules feature 2 x PCIe Gen 3.0, 1 x USB 3.0 5Gbps Type C with PHY, and 1 x USB 2.0 with PHY.

Engineered for performance and reliability, the modules support high-speed LPDDR5 memory up to 6.4GT/s with in-line ECC and encryption for improved data integrity and security. Storage options include eMMC 5.1 and support for 1 x eMMC/SD slot, delivering robust performance and connectivity for industrial and IoT applications, including automation, networking, and HMI systems.

The company's i.MX 95-based CoM includes the SMARC module, AOM-5521 and the OSM module, AOM-2521, which will be available for engineering evaluations in 2025 Q4.

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By Seb Springall

Seb Springall is a seasoned editor at Electropages, specialising in the product news sections. With a keen eye for the latest advancements in the tech industry, Seb curates and oversees content that highlights cutting-edge technologies and market trends.