March 30, 2022
The ESP32-C3 - Notes
It looks like the DevKitC board comes directly from Espressif.
It has a standard Micro-USB connector and has a USB to Uart chip (a CP2102) on board.
ESP-IDF
What the heck is an IDF you ask? That is indeed what I asked.
It is what you want to work with all the ESP devices, or so it seems these days.
"IDF" stands for "IoT Development Framework" and is the package of stuff you need to work
with the ESP-C3. I looks like Espressif has unified all the ESP support into this one tool, lump,
package, whatever you might want to call it. Python is now part of the game.
Hackaday says it will replace the ESP8266. Indeed, I don't think I would buy any more ESP8266 now that this
is available. However I have probably 20 ESP8266 in my supply cabinet and for almost all projects they
will be entirely adequate, so it may be a long time before I find myself buying more that the handful of
ESP32 C3 devices I am currently playing with.
Fedora and Risc V
This is all irrelevant, as when you install the "IDF" you will get a gcc compiler bundled as part of it,
but I was curious.
A Risc V compiler toolchain is available for RISC-V via the standard Fedora Packages:
binutils-riscv64-linux-gnu.x86_64
gcc-riscv64-linux-gnu.x86_64
I don't see a separate riscv32 toolchain. I am reading that the 64 bit architecture has 64 bit registers,
but the same 32 bit instruction length. The 64 bit architecture adds a few instructions.
My guess is that one compiler serves both, with appropriate switch settings.
Feedback? Questions?
Drop me a line!
Tom's Computer Info / tom@mmto.org