Run parallel vision inference on an Alif Ensemble E8 with Zephyr
Introduction
Understand the dual-NPU architecture
Prepare the board and workspace
Build the dual-NPU application
Package and flash the application
Validate live parallel inference
Next Steps

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Stage the images

The Alif boot flow uses a table of contents to load and start each processor image. The sample provides an Alif Security Toolkit (SETOOLS) JSON file that assigns the application and model payload to their validated MRAM addresses.

Set ALIF_SE_TOOLS_DIR to your SETOOLS 1.10 application directory. This example uses the macOS package name:

    

        
        
cd $HOME/alif-dual-npu
export ALIF_SE_TOOLS_DIR=$HOME/Alif/alif_se_toolkit_110/app-release-exec-macos
APP=$PWD/sdk-alif/samples/modules/executorch/dual_npu_vision

Confirm that SETOOLS and the support objects referenced by the sample’s package configuration are present:

    

        
        
test -x "$ALIF_SE_TOOLS_DIR/app-gen-toc"
test -x "$ALIF_SE_TOOLS_DIR/app-write-mram"
test -f "$ALIF_SE_TOOLS_DIR/build/config/app-device-config.json"
test -f "$ALIF_SE_TOOLS_DIR/build/images/a32_stub_0.bin"
test -f "$ALIF_SE_TOOLS_DIR/build/images/m55_stub_he.bin"
Note

If the display D-PHY doesn’t lock, confirm that the board runs SERAM 1.110.0 and that SETOOLS 1.10 generated the package. Rebuild with the full overlay list from Build the dual-NPU application .

Each command completes without output when the file is present. Obtain the validated SETOOLS and firmware updates through the Alif E8 DevKit support page if any check fails.

Copy the images and package configuration into SETOOLS:

Warning

To avoid an invalid MRAM payload, don’t combine zephyr.bin and model_assets.bin from different builds. If the logs report an invalid MRAM payload, remove the old build output, rebuild with --pristine, and copy both newly generated files into SETOOLS before running app-gen-toc again.

    

        
        
cp build-dual-npu-vision/zephyr/zephyr.bin \
  build-dual-npu-vision/model_assets.bin \
  "$ALIF_SE_TOOLS_DIR/build/images/"
cp "$APP/flash/dual-npu-vision.json" \
  "$ALIF_SE_TOOLS_DIR/build/config/"

Generate and write the package

Close serial terminals connected to the board. Confirm that the boot switch is in the SE position, then run:

    

        
        
cd "$ALIF_SE_TOOLS_DIR"
./app-gen-toc -f build/config/dual-npu-vision.json
./app-write-mram -p

Wait until app-write-mram reports that the write completed. Don’t reset or disconnect the board during this operation.

Boot the application

Move the switch from SE to U4. Open the U4 serial port at 115200 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit. Reset the board.

The secure-enclave log shows entries for HP_APP and U85MOD. The U4 log starts with the Zephyr boot banner and the application name:

    

        
        *** dual ExecuTorch parallel SSD(U55) + MobileNetV2(U85) ***

What you’ve accomplished and what’s next

You’ve packaged and flashed the dual-NPU application.

Next, you’ll run the startup test and live camera pipeline.

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