Espressif Systems has announced the upcoming release of its latest System-on-a-Chip (SoC), the ESP32-P4. This high-performance chip is designed for applications that require strong security, and aims to cater to the next era of embedded applications with a focus on rich Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs), efficient edge computing, and increased IO-connectivity requirements.
Powerful Processor and Memory Subsystem
The ESP32-P4 is powered by a dual-core RISC-V CPU running at up to 400MHz, and also supports single-precision FPU and AI extensions to provide necessary computational resources. In addition, the chip integrates an LP-Core that can run at up to 40MHz. This "big-little" architecture is useful for supporting ultra-low-power applications that may occasionally require high computing, as the HP cores can be kept down to save power.
The ESP32-P4 also has an advanced memory subsystem, with 768KB of on-chip SRAM and 8KB of zero-wait TCM RAM. This, along with support for external PSRAM and Flash, ensures that the memory-access latency and available size of memory are not limited.
Top-Notch Security
Security is a top priority for the ESP32-P4. It has a range of features to keep the device secured and trusted, including Secure Boot, Flash Encryption, cryptographic accelerators, and a TRNG. It also has a Digital Signature Peripheral and a dedicated Key Management Unit to generate private keys on the chip itself and protect against software or physical attacks. The chip also has hardware access protection for Access Permission Management and Privilege Separation.
Rich HMI Features
The ESP32-P4 has a range of features to support HMIs, including support for MIPI-CSI with integrated ISP and MIPI-DSI for high-resolution camera and display integration, as well as parallel display and camera interfaces. It also has capacitive touch inputs and speech recognition capabilities. In addition, the chip has hardware accelerators for media-encoding and compression protocols, including H.264 encoding support, and an integrated hardware Pixel Processing Accelerator (PPA) for GUI development.
Integrated Peripherals and Connectivity
The ESP32-P4 has more than 50 programmable GPIOs and supports a wide range of peripherals, including SPI, I2S, I2C, LED PWM, MCPWM, RMT, ADC, DAC, UART, and TWAITM. It also has high-speed connectivity options such as USB OTG 2.0 HS, Ethernet, and SDIO Host 3.0. The chip can function as a wireless companion chip for other ESP32 series products over SPI/SDIO/UART using ESP-Hosted or ESP-AT solutions, or as a host MCU for other connectivity solutions like ACK and AWS IoT ExpressLink.
The ESP32-P4 will be supported by Espressif's mature IoT Development Framework (ESP-IDF), allowing customers to leverage the platform's proven track record powering millions of connected devices. More detailed information on the ESP32-P4 will be available in the coming weeks.
