Espressif Unveils ESP32-S2-MINI Modules, ESP32-S3 and ESP32-C3 SoC’s Coming Soon

Espressif Systems has unveiled two new ESP32-S2 WiFi modules part of the new MINI series modules, namely ESP32-S2-MINI-1U with IPEX antenna, and ESP32-S2-MINI-1 with a PCB antenna.

The press release also mentions upcoming ESP32-S3 and ESP32-C3 processors with few details. Let’s have a look.

ESP32-S2-MINI modules

Preliminary specifications:

• SoC – Espressif ESP32-S2FH4 single-core 32-bit LX7 microcontroller @ up to 240 MHz, RISC-V ultra-low-power co-processor, 320 kB SRAM, 128kB ROM, 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 connectivity, 4MB flash
• Antenna
  • ESP32-S2-MINI-1 – PCB antenna
  • ESP32-S2-MINI-1U – IPEX antenna connector
• Dimensions
  • ESP32-S2-MINI-1 – 20 x 15.4 x mm
  • ESP32-S2-MINI-1U – 15.4 x 15.4 x mm

The company states the exact processor SKU used in the module is ESP32-S2FH4, but initially I could not find out it differed from ESP32-S2 since it has the same specs include a single-core processor, ULP core, up to 43 GPIOs, and USB-OTG support. It turns out the flash appears to be embedded inside the ESP32-S2F processor instead of being a separate chip.

And indeed if we look at the photo of the module, there’s no external flash. That’s how they can make the modules so small.

Two development kits, named respectively ESP32-S2-DevKitM-1 and ESP32-S2-DevKitM-1U, are in the works but we don’t have any other details at this stage.

There’s still time since ESP32-S2-MINI modules are currently undergoing FCC, CE, SRRC certifications, and mass production is scheduled for  December 2020. Samples are available now and the company invites people to request samples if they have a specific project in mind.

ESP32-S3 and ESP32-C3 processors

The end of the press release ends with

What’s more, modules from the ESP32, ESP32-S3, and ESP32-C3 series will also be included in our MINI series. So, stay tuned for more news!

That’s interesting because I had never heard about ESP32-S3 nor ESP32-C3. Sadly, there’s very little information on the web. We can check ESP32-S3 tag on twitter to find a few more details:

• July 2019- “There is the next ESP32-S3 and ESP32-S4 with AI instructions and multi-cpu cores. we are working on several neural networks to run on them”
• March 2020 – “ESP32-S3 with WiFi and BLE will follow soon”

Some of the information is a bit old, but we can also check the ESP32-S3 specific code on Github. So it looks like ESP32-S3 is a multicore processor clocked at up to 240 MHz with support for WiFi and Bluetooth,  SPI flash, SPI ROM, and possibly AI instructions.

What about ESP32-C3? I have not idea because I could not find any information at this point in time… [Update Nov 22, 2020: ESP32-C3 RISC-V processor has been released]

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