WIZnet has revealed two new microcontroller evaluation boards, the W5500-EVB-Pico2 and W5100S-EVB-Pico2. These boards are based on the Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller and are equipped with fully hardwired TCP/IP controllers, enhancing their networking capabilities.

The W5500-EVB-Pico2 features the W5500 Ethernet Controller, which supports eight independent hardware sockets. This allows for handling multiple network connections simultaneously. Additionally, it includes 32 Kbytes of internal memory for TX/RX buffers, which is beneficial for managing larger data packets efficiently.

The board is built around the RP2350 microcontroller, which comes with dual Arm Cortex-M33 cores running at up to 150MHz. It also includes 520kB of SRAM and external Quad-SPI Flash with XIP capabilities. The W5500-EVB-Pico2 offers various security features, such as Secure Boot and Arm TrustZone Technology, along with a range of analog and digital peripherals.

On the other hand, the W5100S-EVB-Pico2 uses the W5100S Ethernet Controller, which supports four independent hardware sockets. It includes 16 Kbytes of internal memory for TX/RX buffers, making it suitable for applications with moderate networking requirements. The board is similarly powered by the RP2350 microcontroller and provides versatile connectivity options, including a 10/100 Ethernet PHY and high-speed SPI.

The W5100S-EVB-Pico2 is optimized for applications that require fewer concurrent network connections but still need reliable performance. It also supports Wake-on-LAN over UDP, a feature not present in the W5500-EVB-Pico2.

Both boards maintain compatibility with the traditional Raspberry Pi Pico pinout, making them convenient for developers who want to integrate Ethernet functionality into their projects. Some of the standard interfaces supported by both devices are UART, SPI, GPIOs, ADC, PWM, and Debug pins.

Further information

WIZnet’s Twitter account recently announced the launch of these two products, though their product pages are not yet available as of the publication date. However, the Wiki pages for the W5500-EVB-Pico2 and W5100S-EVB-Pico2 are already accessible on their website.