4 ms·

I don't really get it. It's not even competitive with an ESP32 -- it has no communications at all.

noodlesUK 2y ago
Lots of applications don’t require radios, but the previous series of RP2040s had a “W” variant that had wifi and BLE. We may yet see a RP2350W.
- freeqaz 2y ago
  They say in the post that it will be released towards the end of the year.
- tpmoney 2y ago
  Their plan is to have it by the end of the year: >Before the end of the year, we expect to ship a wireless-enabled Pico 2 W, using the same Infineon 43439 modem as Pico W, and versions of both Pico 2 and Pico 2 W with pre-installed 0.1-inch headers.
- jonp888 2y ago
  You are mixing up SOCs and devboards. RP2040 is a chip, there has never been version with onboard communication. Raspberry Pi Foundation released a RP2040 based dev board(Pico W) with an additional external wireless chip, as have others(including boards with an additional ESP32 just do comms).
  - noodlesUK 2y ago
    Ah thanks for clearing that up. Entirely my mistake, I thought that it was a package like the ESP32, but it is not.
HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
Lot applications out there that don't need that but need plenty of RAM & Flash to run an 800x480 TFT graphics display.
- polishdude20 2y ago
  So this may be a dumb question.. Why is a lot of ram needed for running a display? Is it just to be able to save all the pixel data? If you'd be generating your image on the fly then I'm assuming ram wouldn't matter because you wouldn't be storing anything?
  - numpad0 2y ago
    Is it just to be able to save all the pixel data. Intermeshing game logic processing with scanline generation is likely a bit too archaic for most projects.
  - AnotherGoodName 2y ago
    800 * 480 * 16bit * 30fps = 23million bytes written out to the screen per second. Don't even look at higher resolutions, it's literally exponential in bandwidth. Video takes a lot of data. The highest resolutions and framerates put the fastest network speeds to shame. A CPU just plain can't do this. Even if you want to pretend it's one cycle per pixel the realtime constraints at higher resolutions are way out of the realm of feasible. We struggle to do CPU driven audio in realtime as-is (Audio is measured in Khz of bandwidth rather than Mhz). You can do this at very low resolutions easily enough (again it's exponential with resolution increase) but then you have a low resolution screen.
    - makapuf 2y ago
      As a hobby I created in 2014 a console on a single microcontroller that does exactly that, with VGA resolution https://bitboxconsole.blogspot.com/ https://bitboxconsole.blogspot.com/
  - xena 2y ago
    I mean you can race the beam yeah, probably easier because you have two cores, but a framebuffer is easier for developers to work with.
  - HankB99 2y ago
    Not dumb at all. I worked with an ST Micro processor and small TFT display. The routine to write to the screen was to save the contents to RAM and then point a graphics renderer to that RAM. Double and triple buffering were required to avoid screen tearing (screen update with partial previous and next screen mixed.)
ssl-3 2y ago
Eh? It's got all kinds of communications (and the ability to create more with PIOs); it just doesn't have wireless communications. (And, like the predecessor Pi Pico, a version with wireless will be coming later.)
- lostemptations5 2y ago
  Ok. So then it's just on par with an ESP32...later this year possibly.
  - bschwindHN 2y ago
    Its advantage over ESP32 is the flexibility in its PIO peripheral, I'd say. That, and it's super well documented and easy to get code running on it. ESP32 is a great complement to it though for projects needing wifi or BLE
  - ssl-3 2y ago
    Not exactly, no. The ESP32 is a fine series of MCUs, but it doesn't have PIOs, a choice between ARM and RISC-V (or both!), 5v-tolerant IO -- to name a few things that this new RP2350 provides. There's a ton of stuff in the world that uses an MCU and doesn't have wireless, and that would not benefit from having wireless. But if RP2350 features and wireless are both necessary today, then nothing but a few schekels and some space on the board stops anyone from integrating those things. One can have both. Remember, even the ESP8266 was first seen in English-speaking DIY circles as just a way to add wifi to things like Arduino projects and not so much as a capable, programmable MCU itself. https://hackaday.com/2014/08/26/new-chip-alert-the-esp8266-wifi-module-its-5/ https://hackaday.com/2014/08/26/new-chip-alert-the-esp8266-w...
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - AnotherGoodName 2y ago
      There’s multiple people saying this so I’ll just ask politely. Every esp has a multitude of gpios. The esp8266 mentioned is almost entirely gpios on its pin out. I’ve used these extensively and it’s great for flexibility. From led indicators to full on activating a relay. You say it’s not the same as the pi’s pios. So I’ll ask. What does the pi do here that the esp doesn’t?
numpad0 2y ago
XXXL sized arctic overcoat don't make S sized cotton T-shirt obsolete and useless.
petra 2y ago
The chip will be cheap, probably $0.9 per chip @500 units.

Lots of applications don’t require radios, but the previous series of RP2040s had a “W” variant that had wifi and BLE. We may yet see a RP2350W.

freeqaz 2y ago
They say in the post that it will be released towards the end of the year.
tpmoney 2y ago
Their plan is to have it by the end of the year: >Before the end of the year, we expect to ship a wireless-enabled Pico 2 W, using the same Infineon 43439 modem as Pico W, and versions of both Pico 2 and Pico 2 W with pre-installed 0.1-inch headers.
jonp888 2y ago
You are mixing up SOCs and devboards. RP2040 is a chip, there has never been version with onboard communication. Raspberry Pi Foundation released a RP2040 based dev board(Pico W) with an additional external wireless chip, as have others(including boards with an additional ESP32 just do comms).
- noodlesUK 2y ago
  Ah thanks for clearing that up. Entirely my mistake, I thought that it was a package like the ESP32, but it is not.

HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago

Lot applications out there that don't need that but need plenty of RAM & Flash to run an 800x480 TFT graphics display.

polishdude20 2y ago
So this may be a dumb question.. Why is a lot of ram needed for running a display? Is it just to be able to save all the pixel data? If you'd be generating your image on the fly then I'm assuming ram wouldn't matter because you wouldn't be storing anything?
- numpad0 2y ago
  Is it just to be able to save all the pixel data. Intermeshing game logic processing with scanline generation is likely a bit too archaic for most projects.
- AnotherGoodName 2y ago
  800 * 480 * 16bit * 30fps = 23million bytes written out to the screen per second. Don't even look at higher resolutions, it's literally exponential in bandwidth. Video takes a lot of data. The highest resolutions and framerates put the fastest network speeds to shame. A CPU just plain can't do this. Even if you want to pretend it's one cycle per pixel the realtime constraints at higher resolutions are way out of the realm of feasible. We struggle to do CPU driven audio in realtime as-is (Audio is measured in Khz of bandwidth rather than Mhz). You can do this at very low resolutions easily enough (again it's exponential with resolution increase) but then you have a low resolution screen.
  - makapuf 2y ago
    As a hobby I created in 2014 a console on a single microcontroller that does exactly that, with VGA resolution https://bitboxconsole.blogspot.com/ https://bitboxconsole.blogspot.com/
- xena 2y ago
  I mean you can race the beam yeah, probably easier because you have two cores, but a framebuffer is easier for developers to work with.
- HankB99 2y ago
  Not dumb at all. I worked with an ST Micro processor and small TFT display. The routine to write to the screen was to save the contents to RAM and then point a graphics renderer to that RAM. Double and triple buffering were required to avoid screen tearing (screen update with partial previous and next screen mixed.)

ssl-3 2y ago

Eh? It's got all kinds of communications (and the ability to create more with PIOs); it just doesn't have wireless communications. (And, like the predecessor Pi Pico, a version with wireless will be coming later.)

lostemptations5 2y ago
Ok. So then it's just on par with an ESP32...later this year possibly.
- bschwindHN 2y ago
  Its advantage over ESP32 is the flexibility in its PIO peripheral, I'd say. That, and it's super well documented and easy to get code running on it. ESP32 is a great complement to it though for projects needing wifi or BLE
- ssl-3 2y ago
  Not exactly, no. The ESP32 is a fine series of MCUs, but it doesn't have PIOs, a choice between ARM and RISC-V (or both!), 5v-tolerant IO -- to name a few things that this new RP2350 provides. There's a ton of stuff in the world that uses an MCU and doesn't have wireless, and that would not benefit from having wireless. But if RP2350 features and wireless are both necessary today, then nothing but a few schekels and some space on the board stops anyone from integrating those things. One can have both. Remember, even the ESP8266 was first seen in English-speaking DIY circles as just a way to add wifi to things like Arduino projects and not so much as a capable, programmable MCU itself. https://hackaday.com/2014/08/26/new-chip-alert-the-esp8266-wifi-module-its-5/ https://hackaday.com/2014/08/26/new-chip-alert-the-esp8266-w...
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - AnotherGoodName 2y ago
    There’s multiple people saying this so I’ll just ask politely. Every esp has a multitude of gpios. The esp8266 mentioned is almost entirely gpios on its pin out. I’ve used these extensively and it’s great for flexibility. From led indicators to full on activating a relay. You say it’s not the same as the pi’s pios. So I’ll ask. What does the pi do here that the esp doesn’t?

numpad0 2y ago

XXXL sized arctic overcoat don't make S sized cotton T-shirt obsolete and useless.

petra 2y ago

The chip will be cheap, probably $0.9 per chip @500 units.