Difference between ESP32 s3 vs ESP32

ESP32 & ESP32-S3 are the two most popular microcontroller boards used mainly in IoT applications. These two boards have some similarities at the same time differences. The enhanced variant of the ESP32 is ESP32-S3 which comes with onboard USB, extra input/output, & an advanced version of the Tensilica cores. This board has an in-built transceiver, Bluetooth version 5 & a full-speed USB OTG interface. In addition, ESP32-S3 is a very smaller chip as compared to both ESP32-S2 & ESP32. This article provides brief information on the difference between the ESP32 s3 vs ESP32 boards.

Overview of ESP32 S3 and ESP32 Boards

The ESP32-S3 board is a dual-core XTensa LX7 microcontroller unit that runs at 240 MHz. This board has internal SRAM -512 KB, integrated 2.4 GHz, Bluetooth 5 (LE) & 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity for providing long-range support. ESP32-S3 includes 45 programmable GPIOs by supporting different peripherals. As compared to the ESP32 board, it supports simply larger, SPI flash with high-speed octal & PSRAM including configurable data & instruction cache.

ESP32 S3 Board — ESP32 S3 Board

Alternatively, the ESP32 is a SoC or system-on-chip microcontroller, released initially in the year 2016 and it was designed mainly for IoT applications. The features of this development are; that it has a dual-core processor, Bluetooth & Wi-Fi. This board is based on the Xtensa LX6 microarchitecture which is a 32-bit microprocessor core and is developed by Tensilica.

ESP32 Microcontroller Board — ESP32 Microcontroller Board

Difference between ESP32 s3 vs ESP32 Boards

The difference between ESP32 s3 vs ESP32 boards includes the following.

ESP32 S3	ESP32
ESP32-S3 board is an enhanced version of the ESP32 development board.	ESP32 is a system-on-chip microcontroller.
The launch year of this module is 2020.	The launch year of this module is 2016.
The ESP32-S3 board has a 32-bit dual-core Xtensa LX7 processor.	The ESP32 board has a 32-bit single or dual-core LX6 processor.
The SRAM of ESP32-S3 is 512 KB.	The SRAM of ESP32 is 520 KB.
This microcontroller uses two Ultra-Low Power coprocessors: ULP-FSM & ULP-RISC-V.	This microcontroller uses Tensilica Xtensa LX6, LX7 & RISC-V single-core microprocessors.
ESP32-S3 board simply supports 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi with HT20/40 and up to 150 Mbps.	ESP32 board supports simply 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi protocols, 2.4 GHz with an incorporated high-performance antenna.
ESP32-S3 has a newer & very advanced Bluetooth 5.0 version.	ESP32 has an older Bluetooth 4.2 version.
ESP32-S3 board features completely 26-GPIO pins, a single UART, I2C, and SPI port. It also has an in-built ADC.	ESP32 board features completely 34 GPIO pins, 2-UART, I2C & SPI ports. It also has an in-built ADC and it helps in reading analog signals from other devices & sensors.
It is more expensive as compared to the ESP32 board.	It is not expensive.
This board has 12-bit SAR ADCs – two with 20 channels.	This board has 12-bit ADC – Two with 18 channels.
The ROM of this board is 448 KB used for booting &core functions.	The ROM of this board is 384 KB used for booting & core functions.
External RAM is up to 8 MB device and addresses 4 MB every time.	External RAM is up to 1 GB device and 32 MB address every time.
It has two 8-bit channels DAC.	It doesn’t have any DAC.
Embedded flash is 8 MB based on the variants.	Embedded flash is 2MB or 4MB based on the variants.
External flash is up to 1 GB device and 32 MB address every time.	External flash is up to 16 MB device with 11 MB and 248 KB address every time.
ESP32-S3 provides the required security to build strongly connected devices without needing any exterior components. This board also supports digital signature, AES-XTS-based flash encryption, HMAC, and RSA-based secure boot.	ESP32 is versatile because it has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, timers, touch sensors, a Hall effect sensor, ADCs, DACs, and two 240MHz cores.

Thus, this is an overview of the difference between ESP32 s3 vs ESP32 boards. ESP32 & ESP32-S3 boards are very popular and most frequently used microcontrollers with some similarities although they have some key differences like architecture, processor, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi capabilities, price, peripheral devices & applications. ESP32 development board is mainly designed for high power & processing applications whereas ESP32-S3 is suitable for low-power-based applications that need very advanced Bluetooth & Wi-Fi capabilities. Here is a question for you, what is ESP32 CAM?

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