Wi-Fi 6 plus Bluetooth 5 in one SoC

28 April 2021 Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT

Espressif Systems has announced the upcoming release of the ESP32-C6, its new Wi-Fi 6 plus Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC (system-on-chip).

The chip is unique in that it packs a 2,4 GHz Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) radio that also supports the 802.11b/g/n standard for backward compatibility. This Wi-Fi 6 support is optimised for IoT devices and the SoC supports a 20 MHz bandwidth for 802.11ax mode and a 20/40 MHz bandwidth for 802.11b/g/n mode. The 802.11ax mode supports a station interface and it offers greater transmission efficiency and lower power consumption. Additionally, the Bluetooth 5 (LE) radio supports long-range operation through advertisement extension and coded PHY. It also supports 2 Mbps of high-throughput PHY.

In terms of CPU, memory and security features, the ESP32-C6 is similar to the ESP32-C3. It has a single-core, 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller that can be clocked up to 160 MHz, 384 KB ROM and 400 KB SRAM and works with external Flash memory. It comes with 22 programmable GPIOs, with support for ADC, SPI, UART, I2C, I2S, RMT, TWAI and PWM.

The 802.11ax standard adds a variety of extra features to the current Wi-Fi standard and Espressif has carefully chosen those features that provide concrete benefits for IoT devices. The ESP32-C6 supports the OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) mechanism for both uplink and downlink communications. It also supports MU-MIMO capability for downlink. Both of these techniques provide the ability to work with high efficiency and low latency in congested wireless environments.

One more important feature of the 802.11ax standard is the Target Wake Time (TWT), which allows the devices to sleep for an extended time period, with assistance from an 802.11ax-capable Wi-Fi access point. This feature will allow customers to build battery-operated, connected devices that can last for years on battery power, while staying connected throughout.

Espressif continues to safeguard the security of connected devices through hardware and software features. The ESP32-C6 comes with RSA-3072-based secure boot, AES-128-XTS-based Flash encryption, digital signature and an HMAC peripheral for identity protection, as well as cryptographic accelerators for improved performance. These features ensure that the devices built with the ESP32-C6 can provide the desired level of security.

The SoC will be supported through Espressif’s mature IoT Development Framework (ESP-IDF), so that customers can benefit from their familiarity with the field-proven platform that already powers millions of connected devices. For customers who would like to use the ESP32-C6 as a communications co-processor with an external host, ESP-Hosted and ESP-AT firmware will also be available.