Comparison chips (SoCs) table for ESP8266/ESP32/ESP32-S2/ESP32-S3/ESP32-C3/ESP32-C6. Forked from @fabianoriccardi

Comparison Espressif ESP MCUs.md

Comparison chips (SoCs) table for ESP8266/ESP32/ESP32-S2/ESP32-S3/ESP32-C3/ESP32-C6

A minimal table to compare the Espressif's MCU families.

	ESP8266	ESP32	ESP32-S2	ESP32-S3	ESP32-C3	ESP32-C6
Announcement Date	2014, August	2016, September	2019, September	2020, December	2020, November	2021, April
Main processor	Tensilica L106 32-bit (up to 160MHz)	Tensilica Xtensa 32-bit LX6 (up to 240MHz) (optionally dual core)	Tensilica Xtensa 32-bit LX7 (up to 240MHz)	Tensilica Xtensa 32-bit LX7 dual core (up to 240MHz)	RISC-V 32-bit (up to 160MHz)	RISC-V 32-bit (up to 160MHz)
SRAM	160KB	520KB	320KB	512KB	400KB	400KB
ROM	0	448KB	128KB	384KB	384KB	384KB
JTAG	X	✓	✓	?	✓	✓
Cache	32 KB instruction	64KB	8/16KB (configurable)	?	16KB	?
WiFi	Wi-Fi 4 (only up to 72.2Mbps)	Wi-Fi 4	Wi-Fi 4	Wi-Fi 4	Wi-Fi 4	Wi-Fi 6
Bluetooth	X	BLE 4.2 (upgrade to 5.0, with limitations)	X	BLE 5.0	BLE 5.0	BLE 5.0
Ethernet	X	✓	X	?	X	?
RTC memory	768B	16KB	16KB	16KB	8KB	?
PMU	✓	✓	✓	?	✓	?
ULP coprocessor	X	✓	ULP-RISC-V	?	X	?
Cryptographic Accelerator	X	SHA, RSA, AES, RNG	SHA, RSA, AES, RNG, HMAC, Digital Signature	SHA, RSA, AES, RNG, HMAC, Digital Signature	SHA, RSA, AES, RNG, HMAC, Digital Signature	SHA, RSA, AES, RNG, HMAC, Digital Signature
Secure boot	X	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Flash encryption	X	✓	XTS-AES-128/256	✓	XTS-AES-128	XTS-AES-128
SPI	2	4	4	?	3	?
I2C	1	2	2	?	1	?
I2S	1	2	1	?	1	?
UART	2 (one TX only)	3	2	?	2	?
SDIO Host	0	1	0	2	0	0
SDIO Slave	0	1	0	0	0	0
GPIO	17	34	43	44	22	22
LED PWM	5	16	8	?	6	?
MCPWM	0	6	0	2	0	0
Pulse counter	0	8	4	?	0	X
GDMA*	0	0	0	?	6	?
USB	X	X	USB OTG 1.1	?	Serial/JTAG	?
TWAI**	0	1	1	?	1	?
ADC	1x 10-bit SAR	2x 12-bit SAR, up to 18 channels	2x 13-bit SAR, up to 20 channels	?	2x 12-bit SAR, up to 6 channels	?
DAC	X	2x 8-bit	2x 8-bit	?	X	X
RMT	1x transmission + 1x reception	8x transmission/reception	4x transmission/reception	?	2x transmission + 2x reception	?
Timer	2x 23-bit***	4x 64-bit	4x 64-bit	?	2x 54-bit + 1x 52-bit	?
Temperature Sensor	✓	✓	✓	?	✓	?
Hall Sensor	X	✓	X	?	X	?
Touch Sensor	0	10	14	?	X	?

* All the MCUs have some sort of DMA. However, if this field is not checked, it means that the user hasn't the direct control over DMA. With General DMA term, Espressif intends a specific DMA peripheral in full control of user. He will be responsible to manage such peripheral.

** In some old datasheet and documentation, it was referred as CAN bus.

*** A timer is dedicated to Wi-Fi, so you cannot freely use it.

For more details about specific models and variants, look at Espressif Product Selector.

The table will be updated as new information will be released. Contributions and suggestions are welcomed!

https://products.espressif.com/#/product-selector

I havent been able to verify if the s3 with USB OTG, has full USB-Host capabilities, as is not clear if the board can provide 5V power to small devices via the USB C port. There is a dev board with even 2 usb ports and there is a hack to "route" power from some buses to the OTG port

I read in toher forum that the boards has the Host capabilities but no power capabilities, so small devices should be powered apart.

I dont have a clear answer for this so asked to Adafruit but no answer yet:

https://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?t=194368

I havent been able to verify if the s3 with USB OTG, has full USB-Host capabilities

The datasheet says it's supported.

3.5.11 USB 2.0 OTG Full-Speed Interface

ESP32-S3 features a full-speed USB OTG interface along with an integrated transceiver. The USB OTG interface
complies with the USB 2.0 specification.

Great summary! Do you plan to add power consumption as well (avg and peak under different conditions)?

Great summary! Do you plan to add power consumption as well (avg and peak under different conditions)?

Agreed and yes please

Hey everyone. I have an official comparison site to recommend.

That's ESP Product Comparison

Let's try it.

I was looking for a comparison table, this is probably the best, thanks a lot

https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/v5.0/esp32s3/hw-reference/chip-series-comparison.html.

There's some more data here which can filled on this page a bit.

The ESP8266 does support JTAG, See https://visualgdb.com/tutorials/esp8266/nodemcu/jtag/

https://products.espressif.com/#/product-selector

stefan-sherwood, OMG, dude! You are the best!!!

this table needs now a further column on right repeating contents of first column.

Espresssif video from DevCon23 given by Mohammad Afaneh says the ESP32-C6 has Bluetooth 5.3?
https://youtu.be/qqpvH6zJuhM?si=2_UJFA1Oo_tEyAh0&t=1462

ESP32-S3 series does also have touch sensing capability on 14 pins. Source here.

Thank you for the table. It is simpler to read than https://products.espressif.com/#/product-comparison !
An important omission is the Floating Point Unit. For example, the ESP32-S2 does not have a FPU! For sources, see :

• https://blog.llandsmeer.com/tech/2021/04/08/esp32-s2-fpu.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP32

An important omission is the Floating Point Unit. For example, the ESP32-S2 does not have a FPU!

Neither do the C3 and C6! https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/v5.1.2/esp32c6/api-guides/performance/speed.html

It is incomplete (ESP32-S3). Full: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/v5.0/esp32s3/hw-reference/chip-series-comparison.html

ESP32 S2 and S3 are the only ones that support USB Host mode, and JTAG debugging over USB, might be worth adding.

For the ESP32c6:

Cache (32 KB)

Datasheet P.35 (3.1.6 Cache)
Cache size of 32 KB

ESP32-C6 has an four-way set associative cache. This cache is read-only and has the following features:
• size: 32 KB
• pre-load function
• lock function
• critical word first and early restart

No Ethernet

RTC MEM moved to LP MEM (low power memory)

There Is a PMU (p4. specifies the power modes and discusses pmu)

Interfaces:

Advanced Peripheral Interfaces
• 30 × GPIOs (QFN40), or 22 × GPIOs (QFN32)
• Analog interfaces:
– 1 × 12-bit SAR ADC, up to 7 channels
– 1 × temperature sensor
• Digital interfaces:
– 2 × UART
– 1 × Low-power (LP) UART
– 2 × SPI ports for communication with flash
– 1 × General purpose SPI port
– 1 × I2C
– 1 × Low-power (LP) I2C
– 1 × I2S
– 1 × Pulse count controller
– 1 × USB Serial/JTAG controller
– 2 × TWAI® controller, compatible with ISO
11898-1 (CAN Specification 2.0)
– 1 × SDIO 2.0 slave controller
– LED PWM controller, up to 6 channels
– 1 × Motor Control PWM (MCPWM)
– 1 × Remote control peripheral (TX/RX)
– 1 × Parallel IO interface (PARLIO)
– General DMA controller, with 3 transmit
channels and 3 receive channels
– Event task matrix (ETM)
• Timers:
– 1 × 52-bit system timer
– 2 × 54-bit general-purpose timers
– 3 × digital watchdog timers
– 1 × analog watchdog timer

So we have to fill in:

Peripherals->

• Three SPI controllers (2 flash 1 gp)
• 1 I2C + 1 LPI2C
• 1 I2S
• 2 UART & 1 LPUART
• 1 Pulse Count controller
• 6 LEDPWM
• 1 MCPWM
• 3 GDMA
• Serial & jtag USB interface
• 2 54bit gTimer and 1 52bit sysTimer
• 1 12bit ADC (7 channels
• 1 temp sense
• 2 TWAI controller
• 1 RMT
• No Hall No Touch

@sekcompsci - some suggestions?

• probably credit @fabianoriccardi (author of the content you forked) and describe your changes?
• clarify that this is comparing chips (SoCs) rather than modules (silver boxes). for example most modules will have fewer GPIOs than the chip itself offers?
• replace all "0" and "X" with "-" which is a clearer indication of absence?
• I think we can fill in all the "?" now?

I'd be happy to send you a diff or make a fork or something-- unfortunately gists don't support pull requests I think?

@sekcompsci - some suggestions?

• probably credit @fabianoriccardi (author of the content you forked) and describe your changes?
• clarify that this is comparing chips (SoCs) rather than modules (silver boxes). for example most modules will have fewer GPIOs than the chip itself offers?
• replace all "0" and "X" with "-" which is a clearer indication of absence?
• I think we can fill in all the "?" now?

I'd be happy to send you a diff or make a fork or something-- unfortunately gists don't support pull requests I think?

probably credit @fabianoriccardi (author of the content you forked) and describe your changes?

= I have no modifications. I only forked for ease of later reference (many times the original goes missing). Thanks for your suggestion, I'll definitely add credit to the original author.

clarify that this is comparing chips (SoCs) rather than modules (silver boxes). for example most modules will have fewer GPIOs than the chip itself offers?

= Correct, I'll add this clarification to the description.

replace all "0" and "X" with "-" which is a clearer indication of absence?

= I prefer to keep it as it is in the original.

I think we can fill in all the "?" now?

= Yes, but for the same reason as above, I haven't changed anything and recommend referring to a newer, more up-to-date source: https://gist.github.com/sekcompsci/2bf39e715d5fe47579fa184fa819f421?permalink_comment_id=4348602#gistcomment-4348602

I'd be happy to send you a diff or make a fork or something-- unfortunately gists don't support pull requests I think?

= Yes, unfortunately.