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RISC-V SoC Blends BLE and 802.15.4 Connectivity

Espressif Systems has announced the release of its ESP32-H2 SoC with IEEE 802.15.4 and Bluetooth 5.2 (LE) connectivity, operable in the 2.4 GHz band. This SoC comes with an integrated DC-DC converter that enables ultra-low-power, energy-efficient operation. Espressif says that the Bluetooth 5.2 subsystem has been designed exclusively by its own engineering team.

The ESP32-H2 combines two important connectivity technologies. IEEE 802.15.4 radio connectivity has been important to the supported mesh architecture with low power consumption. The availability of Thread and Zigbee protocols address a variety of application use-cases. BLE supports point-to-point, broadcast and mesh communication topologies, while it also enables a direct communication between the smartphone and the device.

Additionally, ESP32-H2 takes advantage of Bluetooth 5.2 technology and supports its new features. Bluetooth 5.2 provides LE Isochronous Channels support that enables building devices for LE Audio, the next generation of Bluetooth audio. Not only will LE Audio enhance Bluetooth audio performance, but it will also add support for broadcasting audio and enabling Audio Sharing. The LE Power Control and Enhanced Attribute Protocol of Bluetooth 5.2 also improve the device efficiency even further. ESP32-H2 also provides full support for the Bluetooth mesh protocol and will support the upcoming Bluetooth mesh 1.1.

The combined availability of IEEE 802.15.4 and Bluetooth LE connectivity enables building devices for the upcoming Matter protocol that intends to bring interoperability for Smart-Home devices. With ESP32-H2 and other SoCs in its portfolio, Espressif can offer the full spectrum of Matter protocol solutions for endpoints with Wi-Fi or Thread connectivity, as well as for border router implementations using a combination of SoCs.

ESP32-H2 has a single-core, 32-bit RISC-V MCU that can be clocked up to 96MHz. It has a 256KB SRAM and works with external flash. It has 26 programmable GPIOs with support for ADC, SPI, UART, I2C, I2S, RMT, GDMA and PWM. ESP32-H2 continues to facilitate building secure connected devices through hardware security features such as ECC-based secure boot, AES-128/256-XTS-based flash encryption, digital signature and an HMAC peripheral for identity protection, as well as cryptographic accelerators for improved performance.

ESP32-H2 will support Thread version 1.x and Zigbee 3.x. Espressif, as an active member of CSA, will continue to develop and support the Matter protocol on ESP32-H2 for as long as the standard progresses. ESP32-H2 will be supported through Espressif’s mature IoT Development Framework (ESP-IDF), so that customers can benefit from their familiarity with the company’s field-proven platform that already powers millions of connected devices.

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Espressif Systems | www.espressif.com

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RISC-V SoC Blends BLE and 802.15.4 Connectivity

by Circuit Cellar Staff time to read: 2 min