Eight Development Adopts Qualcomm Dragonwing™ Q2390, Bringing Edge AI to Life Safety and Mission-Critical Systems

BERLIN, Germany and AUCKLAND, New Zealand — 7 September 2026

Eight Development Limited (8D), the embedded hardware and software platform company serving Tier-1 OEMs in security, fire and life safety, Pro-AV and building automation, today announced its developing a next generation compute board powered by the newly announced Qualcomm Dragonwing™ Q-2390 processor from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Unveiled by Qualcomm Technologies ahead of IFA 2026 in Berlin, the Dragonwing Q-2390 is a highly integrated, AI-enabled edge platform designed to bring on-device intelligence to a far broader range of connected devices. 8D is among a select group of ecosystem partners engaged through Qualcomm Technologies’ early access programme and is focused specifically on life safety and mission-critical applications.

Edge AI Where Failure Is Not an Option

8D designs and manufactures touchscreen user interfaces, embedded compute hardware and full software stacks for some of the world’s largest security and life safety technology brands. Its products sit in the most demanding environments in the built world — fire alarm control panels, intrusion and access control systems, and building automation platforms — where reliability, long product lifecycles and regulatory compliance are non-negotiable.

Built on the Dragonwing Q-2390, 8D’s next-generation platform will be one of the first AI-enabled edge compute boards deployed by its OEM customers, which include global technology brands. The platform combines a selected configuration of the Dragonwing Q-2390 quad-core application processor, integrated NPU for on-device AI, graphics and display support, flexible wired and wireless connectivity, and a dedicated real-time MCU in a single architecture.

For OEMs, 8D’s next-generation platform opens the door to a new class of intelligent life safety and security products, including:

• On-device anomaly and event detection — analysing sensor, audio and camera data locally to reduce false alarms and identify emerging risks earlier, without dependence on cloud connectivity.
• Predictive maintenance — monitoring panel and device health at the edge to flag degradation before it becomes a failure.
• Natural-language and voice interaction at the panel — simplifying operation for installers, facility managers and occupants in high-stress situations.
• Intelligent occupant guidance — adaptive evacuation and notification driven by real-time site conditions.
• Privacy-preserving intelligence — keeping sensitive site data on the device, a critical
  requirement for hospitals, data centres, critical infrastructure and government facilities.
• Resilient operation — full functionality maintained when networks are degraded or unavailable.

Executive Commentary

“At Eight Development, we build scalable platforms that support mission-critical products across security, fire, life safety, and building automation, so every technology decision has to serve an entire product family for years to come,” said Jason Mackie, CEO and Co-founder, Eight Development Limited. “With an integrated real-time MCU, the Dragonwing Q-2390 helps us simplify system design while giving customers a platform that can scale across product tiers and generations.”

“Life safety has been the last sector to adopt AI at the edge, and for good reason — the bar for trust is exceptionally high,” Mackie added. “Our collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies helps Eight Development design our products to give customers a path to bring that AI at the edge capability into certified, mission-critical products, on silicon backed by one of the world’s most trusted technology companies.”

“The Dragonwing Q-2390 is the right architecture at the right time,” said Liam Mackie, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Eight Development Limited. “Having AI acceleration, application compute and a hard real-time core on one platform lets us keep the safety-critical functions deterministic and isolated while layering intelligence on top. That separation is exactly what our customers and the standards bodies need to see.”

“We’re excited that Eight Development chose the Dragonwing Q-2390 for its next-generation platform,” said Erick Hong, Senior Director, Business Development, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Dragonwing Q-2390 is designed to provide an integrated combination of low-power computing, ondevice AI, connectivity, graphics, and real-time processing capabilities across supported configurations, giving customers the flexibility they demand to deliver intelligent, responsive and reliable solutions.”

Availability

8D is engaged with OEM customers on designs powered by Dragonwing Q-2390 now through Qualcomm Technologies’ early access programme. Qualcomm Technologies expects Dragonwing Q-2390 evaluation kits to be available in early 2027.

*Qualcomm and Qualcomm Dragonwing are trademarks or registered trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries