Seeed Studio recently released the compact XIAO ESP32C3 featuring the ESP32-C3 from Espressif Systems. The tiny device supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE and offers pads for external power supply. The XIAO ESP32C3 is available for pre-order at $4.99.

According to the ESP32-C3 datasheet, the ESP32-C3 is a low power 32-bit RISC-V single-core processor with four stage pipeline with a max clock frequency up to 160MHz. This device also features a 32-bit multiplier, 32-bit divider and up to 32 vectored interrupts at seven priority levels.

ESP32-C3 block diagram
(click image to enlarge)

The internal memory of the ESP32-C3 consists of 384KB of ROM for booting, 400KB of on-chip SRAM for data and instructions, 4Kbit of eFuse and 4MB of flash. In addition, 8KB of SRAM can be accessed by the main CPU to retain data in deep-sleep mode.

XIAO ESP32C3interfaces
(click images to enlarge)

The ESP32-C3 is IEEE 802.11 b/g/n-compliant and supports 20MHz and 40MHz bandwidth in the 2.4GHz band. The Bluetooth LE has speeds of 125Kbps, 500kbps, 1Mbps and 2Mbps. The board also includes an external antenna to improve signal coverage. 

 

For I/O peripherals, there are eleven digital I/Os which can be used for PWM. The pins also common protocols such as one UART, one I2C, one SPI and even one I2S. The analog pins A0:A4 can also be used for ADC.

Seeed Studio provides a wiki to get started with this board using Arduino IDE. For more info refer to this link. 

Specifications listed for the XIAO ESP32C3 include:

• Processor System:
  • ESP32-C3 SoC, RISC-V single-core 32-bit processor (up to 160 MHz)
• Memory/Storage:
  • 400KB SRAM
  • 384KB ROM (16KB for cache)
  • 4MB Flash
  • 8KB SRAM in RTC
• Connectivity:
  • 2.4GHz Wi-Fi subsystem
  • Bluetooth 5.0/Bluetooth mesh
  • 1x Antenna connector
• USB:
  • 1x USB Type-C 
• I/O Interfaces:
  • 1x UART, 1x I2C, 1x IIS, 1x SPI,
  • 11x GPIO(PWM), 4x ADC
• Other Features:
  • 1x Reset button 
  • 1x Boot button
  • JTAG pads
  • Battery connector
• Security:
  • AES-128/256, Hash, RSA, HMAC support
  • Digital signature, Secure boot
• Power:
  • 5V (USB Type-C)
  • Charging current – 50mA/100mA
  • Deep Sleep Power Consumption – 44 μA
• Dimensions:
  • 21 x 17.5mm

Further information

Seeed Studio is offering the XIAO ESP32C3 at $4.99 (pre-order), the company estimates they will have these boards available around August 15, 2022 .Refer to the product page for more information.