Since its release in 2016, ESP32 -with its integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity- has powered millions of connected and smart devices. Additionally, with its dual-core 240-MHz MCU, memory expandability, and computing power, ESP32 has enabled truly innovative applications, such as voice-interactive, audio, and predictive-maintenance devices based on machine learning, to name but a few. Responding to the ever growing significance of AI, we are delighted to announce the newest addition to Espressif’s series of MCUs, ESP32-S3, which has been specifically designed to address the needs of the AIoT market.
ESP32-S3 is a dual-core XTensa LX7 MCU, capable of running at 240 MHz. Apart from its 512 KB of internal SRAM, it also comes with integrated 2.4 GHz, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-Low-Energy 5.0 connectivity that provides long-range support. It has 44 programmable GPIOs and supports a rich set of peripherals. Compared with ESP32, it supports larger, high-speed octal SPI flash, and PSRAM with configurable data and instruction cache.
ESP32-S3 supports a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) with 40 MHz of bandwidth support. The Bluetooth Low Energy subsystem supports long range through Coded PHY and advertisement extension. It also supports higher transmission speed and data throughput, with 2 Mbps PHY. Both Wi-Fi and BLE have superior RF performance that is maintained even at high temperatures.
ESP32-S3 has additional support for vector instructions in the MCU, which provides acceleration for neural network computing and signal processing workloads. The software libraries for the above-mentioned optimized functions will become available very soon, in the form of updates to ESP-WHO and ESP-Skainet.
ESP32-S3 has 44 programmable GPIOs, namely 10 more GPIOs than those of ESP32. ESP32-S3 supports all the commonly-used peripherals, such as SPI, I2S, I2C, PWM, RMT, ADC, DAC and UART, SD/MMC host and TWAITM. In total, 14 GPIOs can be configured as capacitive touch input for HMI applications. Apart from all these peripherals, however, ESP32-S3 is also equipped with an ultra-low-power (ULP) core that supports multiple low-power modes in a variety of such use-cases.
ESP32-S3 provides all the necessary security requirements for building securely connected devices, without requiring any external components. It supports AES-XTS-based flash encryption and RSA-based secure boot. In addition, ESP32-S3 has a digital signature peripheral and an HMAC module, which provide functionality that is similar to the hardware secure element, thus protecting the private or symmetric key from software attacks and identity theft. ESP32-S3 also has a “World Controller” peripheral that provides two fully-isolated execution environments, which enable the implementation of a trusted-execution environment or a privilege-separation scheme.
ESP32-S3 is supported through Espressif’s popular ESP-IDF platform that already powers millions of devices on the market. ESP-IDF comes with rigorous testing, regular updates and an unparalleled support policy. Based on ESP-IDF’s mature software architecture, developers can easily build applications anew or migrate their own applications to the ESP32-S3 platform, and continue working with the trusted ESP-IDF tools and APIs.
ESP32-S3 is the result of an overall optimization in terms of connectivity, AI computing power, security, IO availability, and peripheral interfaces. The release of ESP32-S3 aims to provide device manufacturers and developers with a cost-effective and easy-to-develop AIoT solution platform, so that consumers can get a better experience of smart networking. What is more, Espressif remains committed to innovating its AIoT solutions, and contributing to the development of the semiconductor and AIoT industry.