Espressif's New High-Performance RISC-V ESP32-P4 SoC Packs in Tons of IO and Security Features

Espressif has added a new system-on-chip (SoC) to the ESP32 family. The RISC V-based ESP32-P4 has three cores, 50 programmable GPIO, and a complete set of security features. But, curiously, the chip is missing one feature synonymous with "Espressif SoC:" an RF radio!

While there are three CPU cores, Espressif configured them as a "big-little" architecture with a high-performance (dual-core) and low-power (single-core) system. The intent is to keep the high-performance cores powered down when not needed.

ESP32-P4's high-performance CPU is a dual-core RISC-V CPU running up to 400 MHz. It has 768 kilobytes of on-chip SRAM. But, if you add an external PSRAM, the on-chip RAM becomes a local cache. There are also eight kilobytes of zero-wait tightly coupled memory (TCM) for low latency buffer access.

The low-power system is a single RISC-V core running up to 40 MHz with dedicated SRAM, ROM, and peripherals. It also houses the SoC's power management unit (PMU). Its peripherals include low-speed serial interfaces, a touch interface, and a temperature sensor.

Espressif touts the ESP32-P4 as having best-in-class security. The features include secure boot, flash encryption, true-random number generator, digital signature management, access permissions, and privileged separation.

There are 50 programmable GPIOs, the most Espressif's SoCs have ever offered. Peripherals for the high-performance CPU include MIPI (Camera and Display) interfaces, hardware accelerators for h264 and JPEG, USB, Ethernet, and many others.

For user interfaces, ESP32-P4 includes CSI and DSI interfaces, capacitive touch, and speech recognition features. For graphical displays, there is a hardware-based Pixel Processing Accelerator.

Another first for the ESP32 family is that the ESP32-P4 does not have an RF radio — of any kind! There is no built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or other 2.4 GHz technology! Instead, Espressif says the ESP32-P4 can connect to another ESP32 family member with ESP-Hosted, ESP-AT, or other third-party solutions. Alternatively, wired ethernet is supported.

Overall, the ESP32-P4 targets edge computing applications that need high-performance processing, advanced human-machine interface, and strong security. At this time, ESP32-P4 details are limited to this press release. But we definitely expect to hear more about this new entry to the ESP32 family soon.