Raspberry Pi Pico 2W Plus (Unoffical)

The Raspberry Pi Foundation recently announced its new microcontrollers, the RP2350A and RP2350B models.

Pico 2W Plus Development Board:

The development board I designed is based on the RP2350B microcontroller (compatible with RP2354B). Power for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is provided by the ESP32C3 microcontroller.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation already has an official development board called the Raspberry Pi Pico 2, which uses the RP2350A microcontroller, but there is no board available for the RP2350B yet. This development board is designed to meet that need.

RP2040 vs RP2350:

These microcontrollers come with many new features compared to the RP2040.

Core:

While the RP2040 uses the powerful ARM Cortex-M0+ architecture, the RP2350 employs a combination of ARM Cortex-M33 and RISC-V architectures. These cores provide the RP2350 with efficiency, performance, and low power consumption, along with enhanced security features through TrustZone.

SRAM:

The 256KB SRAM found in the RP2040 has been increased to 512KB in the RP2350. This allows for higher performance with the RP2350.

GPIO Pins:

The RP2350 microcontroller is divided into two models: A and B. The RP2350A model has the same number of GPIO pins as the RP2040. The RP2350B model, which I use on the development board, has 48 GPIO pins, allowing for use in more complex projects. Both models feature 2 UART, 2 I2C, 2 SPI, and 1 USB connection.

External Flash and SRAM:

The RP2040 supports up to 16MB of QSPI Flash in addition to its default 2MB of internal storage. In the RP2350 models, there are options for either 4MB of internal storage or no internal storage, with support for up to 16MB of QSPI Flash and up to 8MB of SRAM.

Security:

The RP2350 features TrustZone capability thanks to its ARM Cortex-M33 core. It also includes a random number generator and optional boot signing. These features make it more secure compared to the RP2040.

Price:

Despite all these impressive features, the pricing for the RP2350 series is as follows:

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