Case Study: Brewing Innovation in 48 Hours – AI-Powered Coffee Machine on i.MX8Plus SMARC

Background An OEM customer in the consumer appliance sector set out to prototype a next-generation connected coffee machine. The key requirements were:

• Reliable embedded compute performance
• Modern, responsive user interface
• Rapid proof-of-concept turnaround
• Standardized hardware platform with long-term availability

Challenge Traditional chip-down design approaches would have required weeks of hardware bring-up, display integration, and manual UI coding. The customer wanted to see a working prototype in days—not months.

Solution The development team selected a SMARC Computer-on-Module based on NXP i.MX8Plus, paired with a standard evaluation baseboard and a Simple Plus Display Kit with 7.8” MIPI interface. This off-the-shelf setup provided an instant, production-ready hardware environment with:

• Quad Cortex-A53 cores + Cortex-M7 real-time core
• Integrated NPU (AI accelerator)
• Dual camera and multimedia support
• Long-term availability and scalability through the SMARC standard

On the software side, the team used AI-assisted UI generation. By leveraging ChatGPT with code generation support, the complete coffee machine interface—including menus, animations, and touch interactions—was built and tested within 48 hours. The AI accelerated coding of graphics layers, touch drivers, and menu logic, reducing weeks of effort into a single weekend sprint.

Results

• Time-to-demo: Fully functioning prototype in 2 days
• User Interface: Modern, intuitive touchscreen menus with customization options
• Hardware Flexibility: SMARC + standard baseboard eliminated hardware integration delays
• Future Proofing: SMARC ecosystem ensures easy scalability to higher-performance or lower-cost modules without redesign

Customer Impact The OEM was able to demo a connected coffee machine to internal stakeholders just days after kick-off. This accelerated decision-making, validated their product vision, and positioned them ahead of competitors relying on slower traditional development.

Conclusion This case highlights the power of modular computing + AI-powered development. With SMARC modules and AI-assisted coding, even complex consumer appliances like coffee machines can be prototyped in days—unlocking innovation speed previously unimaginable.