System Monitoring
From real-time NPU utilisation down to kernel-level driver diagnostics, this is the canonical reference for every monitoring command on Sixfab edge AI hardware. The same DEEPX runtime, the same four commands, across Sixfab AI HAT+ for Raspberry Pi 5, Sixfab Edge AI Expansion Board, and ALPON X5 AI.
Sixfab edge AI products expose monitoring at four stack layers.
Use dxtop for live NPU utilisation, dxrt-cli -s for a full hardware snapshot,
lspci to confirm PCIe enumeration, and journalctl -xeu dxrt.service for runtime logs.
Each command targets one layer of the DEEPX software stack, and the layer mapping is identical on AI HAT+,
Edge AI Expansion Board, and ALPON X5 AI.
Six commands cover monitoring across all three Sixfab edge AI products. Each maps to one layer of the DEEPX software stack: hardware, kernel driver, runtime, or application. The grid below is your starting point; the rest of this page walks each command in detail.
dxrt-cli fails to find a device.
Three command-line tools ship alongside the DEEPX kernel driver and runtime. Each one targets a different monitoring or diagnostic job.
Hardware status, firmware version, and firmware update. First command to run when diagnosing any issue.
Real-time NPU monitor with per-core utilisation, temperature, voltage, and clock. Like htop for the NPU.
Headless model runner. Test any compiled .dxnn file without writing application code.
# 1. Full hardware status dxrt-cli -s # 2. Real-time NPU utilisation (q to quit) dxtop # 3. Test a compiled model run_model --model_path <model_path>.dxnn # 4. Update NPU firmware (only when a new fw.bin is released) dxrt-cli -u <firmware_path>.bin
On Sixfab AI HAT+ for Raspberry Pi 5 and Sixfab Edge AI Expansion Board, the sixfab-dx APT package
installs the runtime, kernel driver, and all three CLI tools together. It handles DKMS builds against the
running kernel and pulls in raspberrypi-kernel-headers automatically.
On ALPON X5 AI, the driver and runtime are already part of the ALPON OS image. The CLI tools are pre-installed and no APT installation step is required. The commands on this page work identically on either path.
dxtop and dxrt-cli are the only tools that surface NPU-internal telemetry:
per-core utilisation, voltage, clock, and on-die temperature. Standard Linux tools (top,
htop, sensors) cannot see inside the DEEPX silicon. For NPU-aware monitoring
in a production fleet, scrape dxrt-cli -s output or the dxtop machine-readable
feed and ship it to your time-series store of choice.
dxtop is a live terminal dashboard for the NPU, the equivalent of htop for the AI
accelerator. It shows per-core utilisation, memory, voltage, clock speed, and temperature, updating
continuously.
dxtop
Press q to quit, n / p to page through devices, h for help.
The example below was captured on Sixfab AI HAT+ for Raspberry Pi 5 with no inference running. Output on
Edge AI Expansion Board and ALPON X5 AI looks the same; only the Variant field changes per product.
DX-RT: v3.2.0 NPU Device driver: v2.1.0 DX-TOP: v1.0.1 Device :0 Variant: M1 PCIe Bus Number: 01:00:00 Firmware: v2.5.0 NPU Memory: [3.98 MiB / 3.82 GiB (0.05%)] Core :0 Util: 0.0% Temp: 49 °C Voltage: 750 mV Clock: 1000 MHz Core :1 Util: 0.0% Temp: 48 °C Voltage: 750 mV Clock: 1000 MHz Core :2 Util: 0.0% Temp: 49 °C Voltage: 750 mV Clock: 1000 MHz
With a model running and frames being submitted to the NPU, all three cores climb to 80–95 % utilisation
and temperatures rise into the low 50 °C range at room ambient. The capture below is from YOLOv8n at
640×640 on AI HAT+ (DEEPX DX-M1M, 25 TOPS at INT8) on dxrt-runtime v3.2.0.
Device :0 Variant: M1 PCIe Bus Number: 01:00:00 Firmware: v2.5.0 NPU Memory: [1.20 GiB / 3.82 GiB (31.4%)] Core :0 Util: 87.0% Temp: 52 °C Voltage: 750 mV Clock: 1000 MHz Core :1 Util: 92.0% Temp: 51 °C Voltage: 750 mV Clock: 1000 MHz Core :2 Util: 89.0% Temp: 52 °C Voltage: 750 mV Clock: 1000 MHz
Variant field per product
The Variant field in dxtop identifies the DEEPX silicon family on the device:
M1M (25 TOPS at INT8) or M1ML (13 TOPS at INT8), depending on the variant you bought.M1 (25 TOPS at INT8).M1 (25 TOPS at INT8).Without active cooling, the DEEPX silicon can reach the upper limit and begin to throttle around 90 °C. On Sixfab AI HAT+ for Raspberry Pi 5, add a heatsink or connect a 3.3 V micro fan to the AI HAT+ JST fan connector. On Sixfab Edge AI Expansion Board, the integrated cooler handles steady-state load; verify airflow is not blocked. ALPON X5 AI is a sealed fanless industrial enclosure designed for its own thermal envelope; monitor and place the device per your ambient operating conditions.
The dxrt-cli tool is the primary interface for querying hardware state and managing NPU
firmware. Use it any time you need a full snapshot of the stack.
Displays device type, runtime version, driver versions, firmware version, memory spec, board revision, PCIe link speed, and per-core voltage / clock / temperature. Use this as the first diagnostic command after installation or when something behaves unexpectedly.
dxrt-cli -s
DXRT v3.3.0 ======================================================= * Device 0: M1, Accelerator type --------------------- Version --------------------- * RT Driver version : v2.4.0 * PCIe Driver version: v2.2.0 ------------------------------------------------------- * FW version : v2.5.6 --------------------- Device Info --------------------- * Memory : LPDDR5 5600 Mbps, 3.92 GiB * Board : M.2, Rev 1.0 * Chip Offset : 0 * PCIe : Gen3 X1 [01:00:00] NPU 0: voltage 750 mV, clock 1000 MHz, temperature 45 °C NPU 1: voltage 750 mV, clock 1000 MHz, temperature 45 °C NPU 2: voltage 750 mV, clock 1000 MHz, temperature 45 °C =======================================================
The structure of dxrt-cli -s is the same across all three products. Three fields shift:
M1M or M1ML on AI HAT+; M1 on Edge AI Expansion Board and ALPON X5 AI.dxrt-cli -s on your own device to see the versions installed there.
The PCIe Gen3 X1 [01:00:00] link line is the same on AI HAT+ and Edge AI Expansion Board
(after the dtparam=pciex1_gen=3 Raspberry Pi configuration is applied during install).
On ALPON X5 AI the link is configured at the factory.
Flashes a firmware binary to the onboard NPU flash. Download the firmware file from
deepx.ai first, then point
dxrt-cli -u at it.
dxrt-cli -u <firmware_path>.bin # Verify the new firmware version dxrt-cli -s
If the installed firmware already meets the DEEPX SDK requirements, there is no need to update the
runtime separately. Download the latest firmware from the DEEPX website and update with
dxrt-cli -u fw.bin. If SDK requirements are not met after the firmware update, the
runtime must also be updated.
These standard Linux utilities complement the DEEPX-specific tools. Use them to verify hardware detection and kernel-level driver state when something higher up the stack isn't responding.
Confirms the host has enumerated the DEEPX NPU over PCIe. If this line is missing from the output, the hardware connection has a problem; see the per-product callout below.
0001:01:00.0 Processing accelerators: DEEPX Co., Ltd. DX_M1A
On Sixfab AI HAT+ for Raspberry Pi 5, check the 16-pin FFC cable connections on both the AI HAT+
and Raspberry Pi 5 ends. A loose latch is the most common cause. On Sixfab Edge AI Expansion Board,
confirm the M.2 module is fully seated in the AI slot and the PCIe FFC is connected; verify the
board is reaching the Pi 5 by inspecting dmesg | grep -i dx. On ALPON X5 AI there
is no removable PCIe cabling; if lspci shows no DEEPX device, this indicates a
system-level hardware fault. Contact Sixfab support.
The DEEPX kernel module must be loaded for the runtime to communicate with the NPU. Empty output means
the module is not loaded. On AI HAT+ or Edge AI Expansion Board, reboot or reinstall
sixfab-dx. On ALPON X5 AI, this points to an OS image issue. Reboot first; if the module
still doesn't load, contact Sixfab support.
lsmod | grep -i dx
Shows kernel ring buffer messages from driver initialisation. Look for PCIe link errors, firmware
load failures, or device enumeration issues here. Use sudo dmesg if output is empty
without elevated permissions.
dmesg | grep -i dx
[ 2.102285] dx_dma: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel. [ 2.112716] dx_dma_pcie 0001:01:00.0: enabling device (0100 -> 0102) [ 2.112830] dx_dma_pcie 0001:01:00.0: dw->dx_ver: 3 [ 2.182700] dx_dma_pcie 0001:01:00.0: [dx_dma_pcie_probe] Probe Done!! [ 2.799076] dxrt_driver_cdev_init: 1 devices
Full systemd log for the DEEPX runtime daemon. Use when the runtime starts but inference jobs fail
or behave unexpectedly. Add -f to follow the log live, or --since "10 minutes ago"
to limit output.
journalctl -xeu dxrt.service # Follow live journalctl -xeuf dxrt.service # Only last 10 minutes journalctl -xeu dxrt.service --since "10 minutes ago"
Some dmesg and journalctl commands may require sudo on
restricted systems. If you see empty output or a permission error, prefix the command with
sudo.
When something isn't working as expected, run these five commands in order. Each one moves down the stack. If the first answers your question, you don't need the rest. This flow is the canonical Sixfab + DEEPX diagnostic sequence and applies identically on all three products.
dxrt-cli -s: does the runtime see a healthy device with the expected versions?lspci: does the host enumerate the DEEPX NPU on PCIe?lsmod | grep -i dx: is the kernel module loaded?dmesg | grep -i dx: did driver initialisation complete without errors?journalctl -xeu dxrt.service: did the runtime daemon start cleanly and stay up?
All three products are Linux systems with systemd and journalctl available out of the box:
on Raspberry Pi OS for AI HAT+ and Edge AI Expansion Board, and on ALPON OS for ALPON X5 AI. The diagnostic
commands and their output formats are identical; OS-specific differences (path locations, supplementary
services, recovery paths for the device image) are documented on each product's Troubleshooting page.