NXP announces its first Microsoft Azure Sphere-Certified Processor, the i.MX 8ULP-CS

NXP has announced its first Azure Sphere-enabled microprocessor, the i.MX 8ULP-CS with Azure Sphere.

Adding Azure Sphere management to the processor means IoT devices powered by the processor will offer greater safety and security, on a more scalable, secure and performance efficient platform.

The i.MX 8ULP-CS benefits from all four components of Azure Sphere: the Microsoft Pluton hardware root of trust enabled on NXP EdgeLock™ secure enclave, the secured Azure Sphere OS, the cloud-based Azure Sphere Security Service and ongoing on-chip OS and security improvements from Microsoft for each device, for more than ten years. Together, these four components deliver a chip-to-cloud security solution that provides ongoing protection against new and emerging threats to keep devices secured over time.

In the i.MX 8ULP-CS, the Microsoft Pluton security subsystem is enabled through the NXP EdgeLock secure enclave, providing a dependable hardware root of trust and advanced security measures to guard against attacks. Pluton is built directly into the SoC, with hardware and software tightly integrated. The Pluton design improves the ability to guard against remote and local attacks, prevents the theft of credential and encryption keys and provides the ability to recover from software bugs. Pluton on EdgeLock secure enclave ensures the SoC uses only the most up-to-date software versions, further eliminating vulnerabilities. Pluton is also critical to delivering comprehensive chip-to-cloud security through integration with the Azure Sphere OS and the Azure Sphere Security Service.

The Azure Sphere OS runs on every i.MX 8ULP-CS and is purpose-built to create an agile and highly secured software environment. This defense-in-depth OS is designed with layers of security to limit the potential reach of an attack and to make it possible to restore the health of the device in the event it is compromised. It combines security innovations pioneered in Windows, a security monitor and a custom Linux kernel to create a trustworthy platform for delivering new IoT experiences.

Lastly, the Azure Sphere Security Service is a turnkey cloud service that connects to and guards every i.MX 8ULP-CS device. It brokers trust, as a certificate authority, for device-to-cloud and device-to-device communication, monitors the Azure Sphere ecosystem to detect emerging threats and provides a secured conduit for delivering automated application and OS updates. With this secured channel, Azure Sphere provides the infrastructure to securely and reliably update the firmware for devices in the field.

The i.MX 8ULP-CS is expected to enable an expansive new generation of secured devices across a number of segments, including industrial, mobile, smart cities, smart homes and critical infrastructure.

NXP also plan to introduce additional Azure Sphere-certified processors as part of the NXP i.MX 9 series.

Read more about the new processor at NXP here.