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ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI

espressif.com

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Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI

#51

Post by xondono »

volemo wrote: post #24

How do Espressif’s RISC-V cores compare to existing ARM or RISC-V options in terms of power efficiency (computational power / electrical power)?

Don’t know the specifics of the Espressif RISC-V cores, but in general they can’t really compete on those aspects with ARM.

ARM is a much more mature platform, and the licensing scheme helps somewhat to keep really good physical implementations of the cores, since some advances get “distributed” through ARM itself.

Compute capabilities and power efficiency are very tied to physical implementations, which for the best part is happening behind closed doors.

Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI

#53

Post by khalic »

xondono wrote: post #50
khalic wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not like creating a chip gives you unfettered access to it. You _can_ add 0-day flaws and backdoors, but these can be discovered, leaked, etc. Has there been any case of such a backdoor built in consumer chips like theses? I’m not talking about CIA ops like snowden described, that’s supply chain interception. I mean, has anybody ever found such a backdoor?

Well, that depends on what you count as a backdoor, but Espressif has had some questionable flaws: - Early (ESP8622) MCUs had weak security, implementation flaws, and a host of issues that meant an attacker could hijack and maintain control of devices via OTA updates. - Their chosen way to implement these systems makes them more vulnerable. They explicitly reduce hardware footprint by moving functionality from hardwa…

You can hide malicious intent, so the repeated negligence patterns you’re pointing out make a better signal. Smart. Thx for the perspective

Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI

#55

Post by bdavbdav »

Love ESP boards, and with Raspberry pi pricing though the roof, I’m hoping more will discover the love of getting the job done on a 10mm2 package.

I suspect a lot of the things people are using RPi for are better served by things like this (and virtualisation for the heavier end)

Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI

#56

Post by mrighele »

bavell wrote: post #54
amelius wrote: post #30

Does it run Linux?

No, missing a MMU.

There is μClinux [1] although it is not clear to me how much alive is the project

I wish I could run DiscoBSD/RetroBSD [2] on an ESP32, I like the idea of running on a MCU something that was originally meant for a PDP/11 (2.11 BSD)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9CClinux

[2] https://github.com/chettrick/discobsd

Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI

#58

Post by PunchyHamster »

albuic wrote: post #44
amelius wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because as it is right now, powering a fleet of those with USB power supplies is annoying as fsck… Therefore, wifi is more convenient than ethernet. You don't need long cables, just a local power source.

> You don't need long cables, just a local power source Which means batteries that have to be replaced and maintained or cables... So ethernet with PoE or even better SPE (single pair Ethernet) with PoDL (power over data lines which is PoE for SPE) is the best from my point of view

Well, yes, but then you need to be "in range" of PoE switch and drag the ethernet cable from it vs the nearby socket. Still, nice to have options

Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI

#59

Post by PunchyHamster »

MallocVoidstar wrote: post #35
wosined wrote: post #12

The ESP32 boards I own have bad support and are a bit of a hit and miss. (arduino nano esp32) Did this get better? Or is the support still messy?

Don't use the Arduino framework, use ESP-IDF or Rust.

how's Rust on the xtensa cores ?

Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI

#60

Post by GeorgeHahn »

Rochus wrote: post #31
volemo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a shame, it’d be a cool and, afaik, unique feature for this niche.

Maybe Espressif will notice that there are no RV32 chips with MMU so far (at least to my knowledge); we only have 32 bit MCUs or then only 64 bits for the CPUs. Something like Cortex-A7 is missing.

There’s one incoming, https://baochip.github.io/baochip-1x/ It would be great to see more.
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