ESP32-H2 announced! Comes with Bluetooth LE and Zigbee support!
Today Espressif systems, the company behind the ESP8266 and ESP32 controllers, announced a new generation of their ESP32 lineup. In this new generation, Espressif will use again the RISC-V architecture CPU like in the ESP32-C3 and the ESP32-C6. Their legacy controllers (ESP8266 and ESP32) were using the Tensilica Xtensa architecture in their designs (more information) The RISC-V architecture is provided under an open source license, which reduces the licensing fees associated with the controller design.
The exciting part of this announcement is not the type of controller used, but the fact that it will contain hardware support for IEEE 802.15.4, also known as Zigbee! This is allowing a more easy implementation of a mesh network architecture, which will allow more reliable low power solutions.
Another exciting aspect of the Zigbee and Bluetooth 5.2LE capability set, is the support for the future implementation of the Matter standard, which is aiming to become the open source standard for home automation applications. The Matter standard is backed by major companies, and with the possibility of the ESP32-H2 to support the standard too, it might become very easy to implement your own DIY projects with the major brand home automation solutions.
We at espthings.io are eagerly awaiting the first modules which are using these new controllers. Hopefully Ai-Thinker, who created the very first ESP-01 module which started the easy access to WiFi connectivity for DIY projects, will create one. When it becomes available, we will for sure start using it in our projects.
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