Espressif came to fame thanks to its low cost ESP8266 WiFi chip which was originally designed for connected lightbulbs, but soon got used in a variety of applications, and ESP8266 modules must now be the most popular solutions to add WiFi to IoT projects, as long as they are not battery powered. The company has recently announced they were working on a new chip, whose name as yet to be decided, that will support both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy.
Details are sparse, but we do know the chip will come with 500KB RAM, support hardware SSL and possibly ECDH, deliver 500 DMIPS of performance, and consume 5 uA in deep sleep mode.
The company asked for beta testers via their twitter account around 2 weeks ago, so I guess it’s a bit too late to apply. John Lee, working for Espressif, also said the new part should become available in around 2 months, but it’s not clear if that target date is for beta samples, or general availability.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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I’ve been working on a solar charged, battery powered sensor node using the ESP8266. Power consumption is okay, you just have to keep it in deep sleep at least 95% of the time e.g wake up every minute, quickly read sensors and get the data out in under 2s. The 1000 mAh battery can last about a week on a full charge and the 2 W solar panel can recharge it fully in a few hours. So even with terrible weather, it’s surviving pretty well.
@Ian Tester
hi, can I see your configuration?
thanks
I got some information that the next chip might be Espressif ESP32 with WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and energy metering function.
ESP32 will be beta testing soon! https://twitter.com/EspressifSystem/status/662205725125414912