SparkFun has introduced a brand new entry in its Factor Plus vary of growth boards, this time constructed across the Espressif ESP32-S3 — and providing options of us in edge synthetic intelligence (edge AI) and Web of Issues (IoT) initiatives.

The chip on the coronary heart of SparkFun’s new Factor Plus was unveiled by Espressif three years in the past, providing options concentrating on on-device tiny machine studying (tinyML) and edge synthetic intelligence (edge AI) workloads. Designed previous to the corporate’s transfer to the RISC-V structure, it consists of two Tensilica Xtensa LX7 cores operating at as much as 240MHz, with 2MB of pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM) and 4MB of flash storage on the ESP32-S3-MINI module chosen by SparkFun for the board. It additionally consists of CPU extensions and {hardware} accelerators designed to spice up machine studying workload and safety activity efficiency.

21 of the 45 whole programmable general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) pins obtainable on the ESP32-S3-MINI module are introduced out to breadboard-friendly headers on the SparkFun Factor Plus, together with as much as 4 SPI, two I2C, two I2S, and three UART buses. There’s an LCD interface for an exterior show, as much as eight pulse-width modulation (PWM) channels, a TWAI controller suitable with CAN 2.0, and USB 2.0 Full Velocity On-The-Go (OTG) capabilities.

For IoT connectivity, the board consists of single-band 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 Low Vitality (BLE) radios, with a PCB antenna, whereas a microSD slot gives native storage. There’s help for an optionally available battery, charged through a Microchip MCP73831 and monitored through an Analog Gadgets MAX17048 accessible over I2C, and a four-pin Qwiic connector for solderless connection to exterior breakout boards — and a user-addressable RGB LED is included to the board’s prime nook, as an added bonus.

The SparkFun Factor Plus ESP32-S3 is now obtainable to order on the corporate’s retailer, priced at $19.95 earlier than quantity reductions.