Sep 8, 2026 – Arrow Electronics has announced global access is now available for customers to remotely evaluate NXP® Semiconductors’ Ara240 discrete neural processing unit (DNPU) via their Digital Test Drive capability. This gives engineers early access to advanced AI models and technologies for computer vision, generative AI and multimodal systems, allowing them to assess performance and initiate designs ahead of investing in their own hardware.
As AI adoption accelerates across industrial, robotics and intelligent vision applications, developers are increasingly looking to deploy more sophisticated AI workloads closer to where data itself is generated. Working with AI locally at the edge can help reduce latency, improve data privacy, and limit dependence on cloud-based processing, particularly for time-sensitive applications.
Designed to support these requirements, the NXP Ara240 DNPU delivers up to 40 equivalent tera operations per second (eTOPS) and supports workloads including large language models (LLMs), vision language models (VLMs), transformers and convolutional neural networks (CNNs). With support for up to 16 GB LPDDR4 memory, the device enables developers to run larger, more complex AI models directly on edge and embedded systems without relying on cloud resources.
To help customers explore these capabilities, Arrow has made NXP’s Ara240 solutions available through its Digital Test Drive platform. Arrow’s Digital Test Drive (often described as a “digital test platform”) is a cloud‑based remote hardware testing and development environment run by Arrow that lets engineers evaluate physical embedded boards over the web without having the hardware on their desk.
Engineers can remotely access live systems based on NXP i.MX applications processors paired with the Ara240 DNPU, allowing them to evaluate real-world AI applications such as computer vision, large language model inference and vision language AI, rather than needing to rely on specifications or benchmark data. This enables engineers to better understand system performance and suitability for their own projects before committing to making hardware investments or architecture decisions.
“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.”
The NXP Ara240 evaluation environment is available now through Digital Test Drive. Digital Test Drive simplifies early-stage testing by helping to eliminate common barriers such as kit availability, shipping delays, complex setup and software installation.
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