Particle Officially Launches the Photon 2 and P2 Module, Promising More Performance and Built-In BLE

Internet of Things (IoT) specialist Particle has officially unveiled its updated P2 module and Photon 2 development board, now with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support as standard — and with a renewed focus on security in the face of what the company calls an "astonishing" increase in attack volume against embedded devices.

"We've seen an astonishing 700% increase in IoT cyber attacks since 2019 and an inability for products to be future-ready against new and emerging standards. At Particle, device and network versatility and security remain a sticking point for Wi-Fi connected IoT devices," claims Particle's Adam Warmington. "To keep pace with a constantly changing IoT cyber threat landscape and expanding customer choices for enterprise deployments, the P2 and Photon 2 updates provide the ideal balance of standardization and security for seamless forward compatibility that gives developers the power to get to market faster."

The Particle Photon 2 is a dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.3 Low Energy (BLE) development board built around a Realtek RTL8271DM microcontroller with a single Arm Cortex-M33 CPU core running at up to 200MHz and with 3MB of RAM and 2MB of program storage available to the end user, plus a 2MB flash file system. There's an integrated PCB antenna used by default, though a Hirose U.FL connector provides support for an external antenna for boosted range or if the device is to be installed in a metal chassis.

The P2, meanwhile, is the self-same hardware running the self-same firmware — but in a module, rather than as a breadboard-friendly development board. The idea, Particle explains, is to develop and prototype an idea using the Photon 2, then productize it with the P2 — available at a surprisingly small discount over the full Photon 2 package, but exclusively in multiples of 10.

Finally, the company offers an edge machine learning (ML) bundle, which pairs the Photon 2 with a range of sensors including an accelerometer, microphone, gas sensor, and motion sensor, a breadboard, and additional hardware for prototyping on-device artificial intelligence projects — including full support in the Edge Impulse Studio platform.

The new hardware is now available to order on the Particle store, priced at $17.95 with the Edge ML bundle costing $69; the P2 module on its own is priced at $15.36 per unit, purchasable only in multiples of 10 units. For those looking for a bargain, the launch of the P2 module means the earlier P1 is now available at a steep discount of $6.50 per unit, while stocks last.