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A comment on I like the RP2040. Parent comment

Re:I like the RP2040 by milesvp on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @01:12PM (#40648875)
FYI. In the embedded space, peripherals refer to the chip's built in capabilities. Typically there is a peripheral that handles SPI, a peripheral that handles I2C, a peripheral that handles USART. There might be a peripheral that handles USB, or I2S, or any number of different abilities. It's either transistors or microcode on more sophisticated MCUs that allows these peripherals, and not every pin is connected to every peripheral, which can make chip selection even trickier. It really sucks to start designing around a chip that looks like it does everything you need with enough pins to only find out that once you start doing pin layouts you can't use both USART2 and I2C because they use the same pins. Worse, is when the datasheet makes this difficult to discern, and you only find out when doing some firmware work on a devboard.
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Re:I like the RP2040 by g15jv2dp on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @03:47PM (#40650659)
Except it's not at all how GP used the word:

> From Wifi/Bluetooth Antenna, LI Battery Controller, Ethernet whatever, Display or Camera Connector - You choose.

None of those are in-chip peripherals. Besides, the RP2040 comes with a lot of peripherals too. Not as much as an ESP32 by a wide margin, but still.

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Re:I like the RP2040 by zik on Wednesday June 12, 2024 @06:17AM (#40656450)
The ESP32 modules are available with or without the antenna built in, and the chips have an on-chip ethernet MAC peripheral, display support via on-chip LCD, I2C, or SPI peripherals, and camera via the on-chip CAM peripheral.

Not all versions have all these features. You can pick one based on the features you need.

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Re:I like the RP2040 by 0x457 on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @01:42PM (#40649256)
> Worse, is when the datasheet makes this difficult to discern,

That's why I like RP2040 so much. Datasheet is amazing and clear, even for someone like me who hasn't spent too much time in embedded world.

There is a special, much shorter document just for hardware design that makes designing a board that uses RP2040 even easier.

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Re:I like the RP2040 by 15155 on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @07:23PM (#40652811)
The RP2040 has one of the shortest datasheets of any MCU.

Look at any Nordic part or NXP part to see what a datasheet is supposed to look like. 3000+ pages with register documentation and behavioral examples.

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Re:I like the RP2040 by 0x457 on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @07:33PM (#40652891)
To be fair, RP2040 also has the least features compared to those.

I’m not talking size of documentation, but it’s “bio-availability”.

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Re:I like the RP2040 by HyulianGrader on Tuesday June 11, 2024 @01:24PM (#40649010)
FYI the RP2040 has peripherals too, a lot of the same ones.

It's very clear that GP has an odd misconception that an ESP32 is some kind of development board complete with "connectors" and possibly a battery charger, while an RP2040 is just the SoC itself.

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