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ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

espressif.com

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Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#91
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen the die images of the ESP32? Basically the entire die area is SRAM. SRAM eats a ton of space, and with a bigger die area you have a much higher likelihood per part that you will have a defect and have to scrap the entire chip.

Isn't memory the easiest part to remap to use build in redundancies during the factory testing of the chip?

Sure, if you add extra remapping hardware, nonvolatile storage, and eat the performance penalties. Makes sense for massive quantities of crappy cheap flash, not so much for this.

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#92
post #38

I really wish Thread mesh networking would become standard on new Wi-Fi routers. Google Nest has hardware support for it, but not sure if it's enabled yet. I think Thread is a much better fit for IP connectivity for IoT devices. Nordic Semiconductor nRF SoCs can do Bluetooth LE and Thread on the same radio at the same time, so should be very cost effective. I'd gladly replace all my Zigbee devices with Thread ones if…

> I really wish Thread mesh networking would become standard on new Wi-Fi routers.

Unfortunately the very fact that Google's label is on it assures zero adoption.

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#93

Why didn't they pack more ram on this? 400K is a bit tight, we often hit the ceiling with the ESP32's 512K of internal RAM. Does anyone know if they support SPI-connected external RAM on this? It has been a lifesaver on the ESP32, especially since WROVER-E fixed most of the long standing bugs that were plaguing the earlier revisions. It is slow as hell, but having 4MB (+4MB high memory) of connected RAM on a microcon…

> Why didn't they pack more ram on this? 400K is a bit tight, we often hit the ceiling with the ESP32's 512K of internal RAM.

512k is already monstrously high for a microcontroller.

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#94
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've seen the Qualcomm chips are really great but impossible to buy if you're a normal human, the ST chips are pretty solid and have a configuration tool that works well in Linux and their -WB versions support wireless and bluetooth but use more power than the Qualcomm chips. Then there's microchip (owner of atmel) which has a wifi integrated chip, but it was really hard to get to work. ESP32 was also super…

AFAIK the older ESP chips used Xtensa, not ARM.

Thanks for the correction, when I was reading the datasheets to implement it somehow this distinction never came up.

Compilers are pretty great! I hope it continues to not matter with RISC-V cores =)

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#95

Why didn't they pack more ram on this? 400K is a bit tight, we often hit the ceiling with the ESP32's 512K of internal RAM. Does anyone know if they support SPI-connected external RAM on this? It has been a lifesaver on the ESP32, especially since WROVER-E fixed most of the long standing bugs that were plaguing the earlier revisions. It is slow as hell, but having 4MB (+4MB high memory) of connected RAM on a microcon…

Thanks for mentioning the possibility to extend RAM on an ESP32. Found the official documention about it: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32/... > ESP32 has the ability to also use up to 4 MB of external SPI RAM memory. > The external memory is incorporated in the memory map and, with certain restrictions, is usable in the same way as internal data RAM. > While ESP32 is capable of supporting…

There are esp32 available with 8MB psram

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#97
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't memory the easiest part to remap to use build in redundancies during the factory testing of the chip?

Sure, if you add extra remapping hardware, nonvolatile storage, and eat the performance penalties. Makes sense for massive quantities of crappy cheap flash, not so much for this.

> Sure, if you add extra remapping hardware, nonvolatile storage, and eat the performance penalties.

Nothing a few fuses can't solve.

> Makes sense for massive quantities of crappy cheap flash, not so much for this.

Coming from the x86 world, they use plenty of fuses for everything. I can't imagine a reason why they would not absorb production variation with this for esp32 dies.

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#98
Ideally useless piece of hardware. 100500+ ESP2866 useless designs are the best confirmation of this harsh statement. You can turn on a LED with it. Nobody knows for what, but everybody knows how, because it's simple - just use the MQTT and ... (list of protocols). RISC V will be the beautiful addon to it cause the True Way To True Uselessness should be hard. ^_^

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#99
post #58
post #38

I really wish Thread mesh networking would become standard on new Wi-Fi routers. Google Nest has hardware support for it, but not sure if it's enabled yet. I think Thread is a much better fit for IP connectivity for IoT devices. Nordic Semiconductor nRF SoCs can do Bluetooth LE and Thread on the same radio at the same time, so should be very cost effective. I'd gladly replace all my Zigbee devices with Thread ones if…

Is Thread still happening? Last time I checked the only hub available was Nest, although Apple hardware has support but it's not enabled in software. Other than a couple of niche home automation products, nothing supports it. When will I be able to buy smart light bulbs for $10 that use Thread?

> although Apple hardware has support but it's not enabled in software.

Nope - HomePod mini has thread enabled. That’s the only thread device I’ve seen from apple so far, but I expect that all future ‘home hub’ capable device would support it as well.

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