Arrow Electronics has made global remote access available to customers through its Digital Test Drive platform for evaluating NXP Semiconductors’ Ara240 discrete neural processing unit (DNPU). This gives engineers early access to run, test, or evaluate real-world performance for advanced AI models and technologies for computer vision, generative AI & multimodal systems before purchasing.
This trend comes as AI is being more heavily deployed in industrial, robotics, and intelligent vision applications, and developers now look forward to implementing more advanced AI applications close to the generation of data. Operating AI locally at the edge brings advantages such as limited latency, enhanced data privacy, and restricted reliance on cloud-hosted computation, as for those with real-time requirements.
To enable customers to discover and examine this functionality. Arrow has also included NXP’s Ara240 solutions on its Digital Test Drive, a digital test platform offered by Arrow on the web. Arrow’s Digital Test Drive, a ‘digital test platform,’ is a remote hardware test and development platform hosted in the cloud. It allows users to test real hardware, remote devices without actually owning and having a target device on their desk.
Engineers can test live systems with NXP i.MX applications processor and the Ara240 DNPU over remote systems that let engineers explore real world AI applications like computer vision, LMM inference and vision language AI without having to rely on specifications or benchmarks. From these systems, engineers can better test their intended use case for their particular project before investing hardware money and system architecture.
“Developers need practical ways to understand how advanced AI technologies will perform in real applications,” said Justin Mortimer, senior director, product marketing, Secure Connected Edge, NXP Semiconductors. “By providing access to NXP’s Ara240 DNPUs through Digital Test Drive, Arrow enables engineering teams to evaluate real-world edge AI performance faster and make informed design decisions.”
“At Arrow, we are committed to helping customers accelerate their AI journey by removing barriers between innovation and deployment,” said Shelby Schnurrenberger, vice president of supplier management, global semiconductor, Arrow Electronics. “By integrating NXP’s Ara240 AI accelerator into our Digital Test Drive platform, engineers can evaluate advanced edge AI workloads immediately, gaining hands-on experience with the technology before making hardware investments.”
“Together with NXP, we are enabling customers to move faster from concept to production and unlock new opportunities in intelligent edge applications. Digital Test Drive extends global access to NXP’s AI portfolio, allowing engineers to validate performance, explore use cases, and shorten development cycles from anywhere in the world. This collaboration reinforces our shared commitment to making edge AI more accessible, scalable, and practical for customers across industrial, robotics, machine vision, and emerging intelligent systems.” Schnurrenberger stated.
