With a high-performance 160 MHz RISC-V core and a second low-power 20 MHz companion core, this tiny board targets smart home projects.
Seeed Studio has launched a new entry in the XIAO family of small form factor microcontroller development boards, built around the Espressif ESP32-C6: the RISC-V XIAO ESP32C6, boasting Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 Low Energy (BLE), and Matter-ready IEEE 802.15.4 connectivity.
The latest entry in the XIAO range, named for the Chinese word for "small" in reference to its diminutive footprint, the XIAO ESP32C6 offers a pair of 32-bit RISC-V processors: a high-performance core running at up to 160 MHz, and a companion low-power core running at up to 20 MHz. There's 512kB of static RAM (SRAM) on board, 4MB of on-chip flash storage, a battery management circuit, and the promise of a 15 µA low-power mode – almost a third of that required by the XIAO ESP32C3, though more than the power-sipping XIAO nRF52840.
It's the connectivity that makes the new XIAO stand out, though: while previous models have been limited to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and/or Wi-Fi 4, the XIAO ESP32C6 includes Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3 Low Energy, and IEEE 802.15.4 with Zigbee and Thread support – making it ready for developing with the new cross-vendor Matter home automation standard.
Seeed has confirmed that the new board will be supported at launch in the Arduino IDE and Espressif's own ESP-IDF development environment, but that MicroPython and CircuitPython support are not yet available.
The XIAO ESP32C6 is now available to order on the Seeed Studio store, priced at $5.20.
