Why Less Computing Can Be the Better Choice for Industrial HMIs

AI-driven human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are spreading to all kinds of industrial automation, rapidly displacing older button- and switch-driven interfaces. It’s easy to see why: Interactive displays help operators work efficiently, and AI capabilities like hands-free voice commands or operator presence checks take the benefits even farther.

Just one problem: Traditional HMI solutions are often overkill for these emerging applications, adding unnecessary cost, power consumption, and system complexity.

Today, there is a solution that hits the sweet spot. The SOM-SMARC-MX93, built around the NXP i.MX 93 processor is a low-power platform that provides just the right level of performance. It is designed to make building scalable, cost-effective HMIs easier than ever, embedding efficient AI capabilities directly where they are needed most.

Mid-Sized Displays with Clear Functionality

In industrial applications, the goal is clear, immediate communication, not a cinematic experience. For basic control tasks, a simple 7- to 10-inch display with a 720p or 1080p resolution is more than sufficient to show crucial data like machine status, warnings, or user interfaces. This approach keeps operators informed without inflating system requirements and cost, and application processors like the NXP i.MX 93 are designed precisely for this "right-sized" approach.

Using an efficient processor has benefits beyond cost. Many HMIs must operate in fanless enclosures, making thermal management a primary concern—and a low-power platform minimizes these cooling requirements. Here again the i.MX 93 has much to offer. As the first in its portfolio to use efficient Arm Cortex-A55 cores, the i.MX 93 is specifically designed to minimize power usage at the system level.

Simple AI Models for Efficient Data Evaluation

Even relatively entry-level HMIs are now expected to support some AI features. At first glance, it might seem like AI requires high-performance hardware, either within the HMI itself or in the cloud. In reality, many AI tasks can be handled by low-power hardware, right at the field level. Typical HMI use cases include:

• Voice control, for example in environments where physical contact is prohibited (e.g., food production or clean rooms)
• Presence detection or basic visual notifications (e.g., to detect if an operator is present at the terminal)
• Local preprocessing of sensor data before sending it to a higher-level PLC or cloud platform

The i.MX 93 is ideal for these applications. It features the integrated Arm Ethos-U65 micro-NPU, which is specifically optimized for low-power machine learning (ML) models. Processing AI tasks directly on the device with this NPU reduces latency, protects sensitive data, and saves bandwidth—all without the need for expensive, power-hungry hardware.

From Entry-Level to High-End

The SOM-SMARC-MX93 helps designers capture all these benefits by incorporating the i.MX 93 processor into a standards-based SMARC compute module. This module includes memory, storage, and other core system components and can be easily integrated into HMI designs.

What the SOM-SMARC-MX93’s onboard i.MX 93 applications processor doesn’t include, in many ways, benefits low-power smart home, retail, and renewable energy applications as much as what it does. Careful market analysis and portfolio planning from NXP yielded an SoC based on the heterogeneous Energy Flex architecture, which features:

• 1-2 Arm Cortex-A-class CPUs compared to as many as six application processors in the i.MX 9x line’s higher-end SKUs
• Ultra-efficient Arm Cortex-M33 for real-time, low-power sensing tasks
• An Arm Ethos U-65 NPU for ultra-efficient ML workload processing

The chip also foregoes a relatively power-hungry and costly intensive graphics unit and instead implements a simpler Hardware Compositor capable of functions such as blending/composition, resizing, and color space conversion.

The power-efficient and cost-effective NXP i.MX 93 provides the foundation for “good-better-best” product lines that leverage hardware platforms like the SOM-SMARC-MX93 on the value end of the scale. Still, the SOM-SMARC-MX93 supports high-definition (HD) 1080p60 with MIPI-DSI or 720p60 with LVDS video as well as dual Gigabit Ethernet, quad USB 2.0, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, making the SECO SMARC SOM a great fit in entry-level HMI designs, for example.

Regardless of product tier, OEMs or system integrators can always integrate SECO hardware platforms with the Clea OS Yocto-based Linux distribution, which adds intelligence, connectivity, manageability, and upgradability to previously “dumb” edge terminals and displays. Clea OS is architected to ease cybersecurity compliance with the EU’s updated Radio Equipment Directive (RED) for cybersecurity.  

Comprehensive Software Support

Clea OS is one component of SECO’s Clea software framework, which SECO offers a platform that extends HMI and other edge device solutions with Internet of Things (IoT) features like device management, data analysis and communication, software distribution, and connectivity. Thanks to highly scalable centralized management and update functions, even large fleets of HMI devices can be operated reliably, with minimal manual effort. Clea also ensures that security patches, new features, and AI model updates are rolled out regularly.

Additionally, Clea supports NXP’s EdgeLock 2Go technology, a service for provisioning and managing edge devices that facilitates the remote installation of security certificates and keys.

Conclusion

In the world of industrial automation, with its modern HMIs and displays, maximum computing power is not always necessary. Often, success lies in finding the right balance of energy efficiency, reliability, scalability, and ease of integration. Simple HMI platforms based on energy-efficient processors, like those offered by NXP Semiconductors, deliver exactly that. They open up new opportunities for scalable, cost-effective, and smart industrial applications.

Talk to SECO’s experts today about your HMI options for industrial automation!