Espressif's Dual-Band ESP32-C5 Finally Lands on the $15 ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1 Development Board
Long-delayed chip, which includes dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and IEEE 802.15.4 radios, can now be tried out.
Espressif is finally launching the long-delayed ESP32-C5 microcontroller, its first RISC-V chip to include dual-band Wi-Fi 6 connectivity alongside Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and IEEE 802.15.4 radios — complete with a new development board.
"The ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1 is an entry-level development board based on the general-purpose module ESP32-C5-WROOM-1. This board integrates complete Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (LE), Zigbee, and Thread functions," Espressif says of its new development board. "Most of the I/O pins are broken out to the pin headers on both sides for easy interfacing. Developers can either connect peripherals with jumper wires or mount ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1 on a breadboard."
The ESP32-C5 has been a long time coming: Espressif announced the part, its first RISC-V microcontroller to include dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity, back in June 2022. It wasn't until March 2024, however, that a leak from the company would unveil full details on the chip's capabilities and a planned development board built around it — and it took until January this year for the first parts to appear in the wild ahead of an actual launch.
The new development board, brought to our attention by CNX Software, marks the first time the ESP32-C5 has been up for sale in non-beta form — but comes before Espressif makes the module on which its based, or the chip on which the module is based, available to purchase. It includes two USB 2.0 Type-C ports, one for power and data and the other providing a UART connection, a user-addressable RGB LED, and the ESP32-C5 itself with single 32-bit RISC-V core running at up to 240MHz, a low-power coprocessor running at 40MHz, 384kB of static RAM (SRAM) plus 8MB of pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM), 320kB of on-chip flash plus 4MB SPI flash, and the radios.
The ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1 is now available to order on Espressif's official AliExpress store at $15 plus shipping; while the company has announced that the ESP32-C5 chip and ESP32-C5-WROOM-1 module are "now in mass production," it had not announced pricing or availability at the time of writing. More information is available in the company's documentation.