Sinovoip Launches Banana Pi BPI-Leaf-S3, an Espressif ESP32-S3 Board Aimed at the Internet of Things
Built around one of Espressif's last Xtensa-based chips, the BPI-Leaf-S3 includes two 240MHz cores, vector instructions, Wi-Fi, and BLE.
Sinovoip's Banana Pi division has unveiled a new microcontroller development board design, the Banana Pi BPI-Leaf-S3, powered by the Espressif ESP32-S3 system-on-chip (SoC) — one of the company's last to use the Tensilica Xtensa LX7 architecture.
"The Banana Pi Leaf is a series of low-powered microcontrollers designed for IoT development," Sinovoip explains of the family to which the new S3 model enters, in an announcement brought to our attention by CNX Software. "The IO pins on BPI-Leaf-S3 are identical to the Espressif ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1, developers can add peripherals that are supported by DevKitC-1 onto the BPI-Leaf-S3, and can also combine it onto a breadboard."
The BPI-Leaf-S3 is built around the Espressif ESP32-S3, one of the last systems-on-chip to be released by the company before it decided to concentrate exclusively on cores built around the free and open source RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA). As a result, it offers a pair of Tensilica Xtensa LX7 cores with vector instructions running at up to 240MHz, 320kB static RAM (SRAM) and 384kB of flash, and is connected to 8MB of external flash and 2MB of pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM).
Like the ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 on which it's based, the board offers 36 accessible general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins and a single user-addressable RGB LED. It's not a slavish copy, however: Sinovoip's version includes a more modern USB Type-C connector in place of the original's micro-USB, includes a connector for a 3.7V lithium-ion battery and a charging circuit supporting up to 500mA of current, and offers a four-pin I2C "dock" connector for external hardware.
As an ESP32-family device, the board also offers wireless connectivity — including 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (BLE), and Bluetooth Mesh. In its lowest power sleep, Sinovoip claims the Leaf hits just 10uA of current — though the company has not offered measurements for its draw while awake. On the software side, Sinovoip is promising full compatibility in Espressif's ESP-IDF along with MicroPython and the Arduino IDE.
More details on the board are available on the Banana Pi wiki, while units are for sale on Sinovoip's AliExpress store at $7.50 each with immediate shipping.
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.