Comment by Tepix
1 day ago
Both the RP2040 and the RP2350 are amazing value these days with most other electronics increasing in price. Plus you can run FUZIX on them for the UNIX feel.
1 day ago
Both the RP2040 and the RP2350 are amazing value these days with most other electronics increasing in price. Plus you can run FUZIX on them for the UNIX feel.
Mmh... I think that the LicheeRV Nano has kind of more value to it.
Around 20 bucks for the Wifi variant. 1GHz, 256MB RAM, USB OTG, GPIO and full Linux support while drawing less than 1W without any power optimizations and even supports < 15$ 2.8" LCDs out of the box.
And Rust can be compiled to be used with it...
https://github.com/scpcom/LicheeSG-Nano-Build/
Take a look at the `best-practise.md`.
It is also the base board of NanoKVM[1]
1: https://github.com/sipeed/NanoKVM
I think the ace up the sleeve is PIO; I've seen so many weird and wonderful use cases for the Pico/RP-chips enabled by this feature, that don't seem replicable on other $1-class microcontrollers.
Wow thanks, this is definetely something I have to investigate. Maybe the Sipeed Maix SDK provides something similar for the LicheeRV Nano.
I'm currently prototyping a tiny portable audio player[1] which battery life could benefit a lot from this.
1: https://github.com/sandreas/rust-slint-riscv64-musl-demo
I'd rather have the Linux SOC and a $0.50-$1 FPGA (Renesas ForgeFPGA, Gowin, Efinix, whatever) nearby.
2 replies →
Amazing value indeed!
That said: it's a bit sad there's so little (if anything) in the space between microcontrollers & feature-packed Linux capable SoC's.
I mean: these days a multi-core, 64 bit CPU & a few GB's of RAM seems to be the absolute minimum for smartphones, tablets etc, let alone desktop style work. But remember ~y2k masses of people were using single core, sub-1GHz CPU's with a few hundred MB RAM or less. And running full-featured GUI's, Quake1/2/3 & co, web surfing etc etc on that. GUI's have been done on sub-1MB RAM machines once.
Microcontrollers otoh seem to top out on ~512KB RAM. I for one would love a part with integrated: # Multi-core, but 32 bit CPU. 8+ cores cost 'nothing' in this context. # Say, 8 MB+ RAM (up to a couple hundred MB) # Simple 2D graphics, maybe a blitter, some sound hw etc # A few options for display output. Like, DisplayPort & VGA.
Read: relative low-complexity, but with the speed & power efficient integration of modern IC's. The RP2350pc goes in this direction, but just isn't (quite) there.
IIRC, you can use up to 16 MB of PSRAM with RP2350. Maybe up to 32 MB, not sure.
Many dev boards provide 8 MB PSRAM.
You might like the ESP32-P4
Eh it's really not when you consider that the ESP32 exists. it has PCNT units for encoders, RMT LED drivers, 18 ADC channels instead of four, ULP coprocessor and various low power modes, not to mention wifi integrated into the SoC itself, not optional on the carrier board. And it's like half the price on top of all that. It's not even close.
The PIO units on the RP2040 are... overrated. Very hard to configure, badly documented and there's only 8 total. WS2812 control from the Pico is unreliable at best in my experience.
They are just different tools; both have their uses. I wouldn't really put either above the other by default.
> And it's like half the price on top of all that. It's not even close.
A reel of 3,400 RP2350 units costs $0.80 each, while a single unit is $1.10. The RP2040 is $0.70 each in a similar size reel. Are you sure about your figures, or are you perhaps comparing development boards rather than SoCs? If you’re certain, could I have a reference for ESP32s being sold at $0.35 each (or single quantities at $0.55)?
PIO units may be tricky to configure, but they're incredibly versatile. If you aren't comfortable writing PIO code yourself, you can always rely on third-party libraries. Driving HDMI? Check. Supporting an obscure, 40-year-old protocol that nothing else handles? Check. The possibilities are endless.
I find it hard to believe the RP2040 would have any issues driving WS2812s, provided everything is correctly designed and configured. Do you have any references for that?