NVIDIA JetPack has continuously evolved to offer cutting-edge software tailored to the growing needs of edge AI and robotic developers. With each release, JetPack has enhanced its performance, introduced new features, and optimized existing tools to deliver increased value to its users. This means that your existing Jetson Orin-based products experience performance optimizations by upgrading to the latest version of JetPack.
JetPack 6, released in Q3 of 2023, marked a significant milestone in this journey. It introduced powerful features like Bring Your Own Kernel, providing flexibility to bring any LTS Linux Kernel, and expanded support for a wider range of Linux distributions, providing greater flexibility for different development environments.
Its modular design also enabled the ability to easily upgrade to the latest JetPack compute stack without upgrading Jetson Linux. Along with these advances, the performance improvements, including enhanced hardware acceleration, ensure that Jetson platforms operate at peak efficiency.
JetPack 6.1 features
In July 2024, NVIDIA released NVIDIA JetPack 6.1, furthering the commitment to continuous improvements in the JetPack stack.
One of the key improvements is the enhanced Argus camera stack, which significantly reduces CPU usage by up to 40% for camera applications.
Another new feature is the introduction of firmware-based Trusted Platform Module (fTPM) support, offering edge-to-cloud security with strong device attestation and secure storage to store certificates and keys, all without the need for additional discrete TPM hardware.
Other highlights include updates to the AI compute stack, over-the-air (OTA) support with secure boot, and improvements in multimedia and networking.
This post discusses the improved camera stack and the new fTPM feature.
- Enhanced camera stack: An enhanced Argus library reduces CPU usage by up to 40% for cameras using the Argus library, by switching to a more efficient Tegra hardware–based sync method.
- Enhanced security: JetPack 6.1 introduces Firmware-based Trusted Platform Module (fTPM) support, enhancing security through secure boot, cryptographic key management, and platform integrity without extra hardware, thus reducing costs and space requirements.
- Upgraded stack: JetPack 6.1 packs the latest and upgraded compute stack. This compute stack can also be used with JetPack 6.0 BSP.
- CUDA 12.6
- TensorRT 10.3
- cuDNN 9.3
- VPI 3.2
- DLA 3.1
- DLFW 24.0
- OTA improvements: Image-based OTA support for NVIDIA Jetson devices with UEFI Secure Boot enabled.
Enhanced camera stack
The JetPack camera stack provides a complete software and driver solution for robust camera support on NVIDIA Jetson platforms. It integrates low-level drivers, multimedia APIs, and advanced image-processing tools to enable efficient video capture, processing, and streaming. Supporting various camera interfaces like MIPI CSI, USB, and Ethernet, the stack leverages NVIDIA hardware accelerators for tasks such as scaling, de-noising, and encoding.
The Argus Camera API, built on the NVIDIA Camera Core, offers an accessible interface, enabling advanced image capture, sensor control, and video processing while ensuring high performance and customization. This makes it ideal for computer vision and AI applications.
JetPack 6.1 introduces a more efficient implementation of the Argus Camera API, reducing CPU usage by up to 40% for CSI camera capture through Argus. This optimization significantly frees up processing power, enabling additional tasks and improving the overall performance of applications using CSI cameras.
Figure 2 shows the CPU performance improvement with the default Argus API implementation in JetPack 6.0 compared to the enhanced Argus API implementation in JetPack 6.1 for 12 CSI cameras used simultaneously. AR0234 and dual-IMX274–based cameras were used at 1920x1200p, 30 fps for verification.
![The horizontal bar chart shows that, with the improved camera stack, JetPack 6.1 consumes up to 40% less CPU bandwidth [MCycles/sec] compared to JetPack 6.0.](https://developer-blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/camera-stack-cpu-use.png)
The enhanced camera stack also contains multiple stability and image quality improvements.
Introducing firmware-based Trusted Platform Module
JetPack has consistently enhanced security offerings by integrating advanced features with each new release, ensuring robust protection across the NVIDIA Jetson platform.
Foundational security features help provide a robust and comprehensive security framework for Jetson-based applications, protecting against a wide range of threats and ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and protection of sensitive data. These features include the following:
- Hardware root of trust (RoT)
- Secure boot
- Trusted execution environment
- Disk encryption
- Memory encryption
- Rollback protection
- Protection from physical attacks
JetPack 6.1 enhances the security capabilities of the JetPack platform by introducing firmware-based Trusted Platform Module (fTPM), a software-based implementation of the TPM standard.
fTPM delivers multiple advantages, such as secure key management without the need for extra hardware, simplifying system design and reducing costs. It supports trusted boot and remote attestation, ensuring device integrity and defense against tampering. By securing cryptographic operations, fTPM strengthens data protection and enables secure communication.
For Jetson users, fTPM offers the following key benefits:
- Stronger security: The fTPM feature significantly strengthens the security of cryptographic operations by creating a dedicated, isolated environment within the trusted execution environment (TEE). This ensures that sensitive processes, such as key generation and encryption, are safeguarded from external tampering or malicious software attacks.
- Data protection: It securely stores critical information like cryptographic keys, digital certificates, and passwords, preventing unauthorized access. This ensures that sensitive data remains confidential and is only accessible to authorized components.
- Attestation: fTPM provides cryptographic proofs, enabling the system to demonstrate the integrity and security of both the hardware and software to external entities. This attestation capability ensures that the system’s current state can be verified and trusted by third parties, such as remote servers or other devices.
Using fTPM, Jetson Orin devices now have enhanced protection against unauthorized access and tampering, making them more secure for AI, robotics, and edge computing applications.
For more information, see Jetson firmware-based TPM.
Distribution partnerships
NVIDIA Linux distribution partners have also made significant progress in supporting their offerings on Jetson. Here are a few noteworthy updates:
- Canonical now has a fully certified Ubuntu environment with long-term support right out of the box for Jetson Orin modules.
- Red Hat Device Edge with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 on Jetson Orin is now in Tech preview.
- Wind River Linux is now powering Jetson Orin-based products in robotics and autonomy.
RedHawk Linux is also supporting mission-critical applications across various industries, while the meta-tegra community has been instrumental in assisting Jetson-based products using Yocto. The NVIDIA collaboration with Linux distribution partners is gaining traction, enabling us to offer the ideal Linux distribution options for all development and deployment needs.
JetPack branch roadmap
A JetPack branch typically remains in the active state for about two years, during which it receives regular updates, including new features, CVE fixes, and PCN additions. After this period, the branch transitions to the sustaining state. In the sustaining state, it continues to receive CVE fixes and PCN updates but no longer incorporates new features.
JetPack 6.1 is the final active release in the JetPack 6 series. After this, the JetPack 6 branch transitions to the sustaining support phase, and continues to receive CVE patches and PCN updates. Figure 3 shows the life cycle for JetPack 5 and JetPack 6.
Jetson modules product lifecycle update
With increasing demand for the Jetson Xavier and Jetson Orin product family, NVIDIA has extended the product life cycle for the following products:
- The NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX 16GB module will be extended from the initially planned Q1 2026 to Q1 2028.
- All NVIDIA Jetson Orin commercial modules including AGX Orin, Orin NX, and Orin Nano products will be extended from the initially planned Q1 2030 to Q1 2032.
For more information, see Jetson Product Lifecycle.
Summary
NVIDIA JetPack 6.1 offers substantial enhancements for developers using the Jetson Orin platform. Key features include an upgraded camera stack, resulting in up to a 40% performance boost for camera-based AI applications. The introduction of firmware-based TPM enhances security and device attestation, leading to more secure deployments, along with several other minor improvements.
Jetson Orin users can upgrade to JetPack 6.1 to get the most out of these advancements and unlock new possibilities in AI and robotics.
For more information, see the following resources:
