RP2040 VS ATMEGA328 VS ESP32 VS STM32[Video]: Comparison some parameters of Microcontrollers

The Raspberry Pi RP2040 is the company's first microcontroller. It brings to the microcontroller arena our distinctive values of great performance, low cost, and ease of use. It provides professional users with unrivaled power and flexibility because of its huge on-chip memory, symmetric dual-core processing complex, deterministic bus fabric, and comprehensive peripheral set reinforced with our innovative Programmable I/O (PIO) subsystem. It provides the lowest possible barrier to entry for beginning and amateur users, with thorough documentation, a polished MicroPython port, and a UF2 bootloader in ROM.

The RP2040 is a stateless device with external QSPI memory cached execute-in-place functionality. This design option allows you to select the right density of nonvolatile storage for your application while also taking advantage of commodity Flash's low pricing.

The RP2040 is built on a cutting-edge 40nm process node that delivers great performance, low dynamic power consumption, and low leakage, as well as a range of low-power modes to facilitate extended battery operation.

The ATmega328 is a CMOS 8-bit microcontroller with low power consumption based on the AVR® enhanced RISC architecture. The devices achieve CPU throughput approaching one million instructions per second (MIPS) per megahertz by executing instructions in a single clock cycle, allowing the system designer to optimize power consumption versus processing performance.

ESP32 is a low-cost, low-power system on a chip (SoC) series with Wi-Fi and dual-mode Bluetooth features developed by Espressif Systems! The chips ESP32-D0WDQ6 (and ESP32-D0WD), ESP32-D2WD, ESP32-S0WD, and the system in package (SiP) ESP32-PICO-D4 are all part of the ESP32 family. A dual-core or single-core Tensilica Xtensa LX6 microprocessor with a clock rate of up to 240 MHz is at its heart. Antenna switches, RF baluns, power amplifiers, low-noise receive amplifiers, filters, and power management modules are all included in the ESP32. ESP32 is designed for mobile devices, wearable electronics, and IoT applications, and it uses power-saving technologies including fine resolution clock gating, numerous power modes, and dynamic power scaling to achieve ultra-low power consumption.

The STM32 32-Bit ARM® Cortex®-M MCUs from STMicroelectronics are based on the Arm Cortex-M processor and are designed to give MCU users unprecedented levels of freedom. The MCUs come in a 32-bit version that combines high performance, real-time capability, digital signal processing, and low-power, low-voltage operation. This is accomplished while retaining complete integration and development ease.

The unrivaled and extensive range of STM32 devices, which are based on an industry-standard core and come with a wide range of tools and software, makes this family of products the best choice for small projects as well as platforms considerations.

The STM32 range now includes Arm Cortex-M cores (M0, M0+, M3, M4, and M7), as well as other alternatives. This allows developers the freedom to choose the best STM32 for their applications. The ability to move applications from one device to another is given special consideration. When dealing with the STM32 family, the binary compatibility, paired with the comparable pinout assignment, hardware IP proliferation, and higher-level programming language, makes the development task significantly more convenient.

RP2040 Features

• Dual ARM Cortex-M0+ @ 133MHz

• 264kB on-chip SRAM in six independent banks

• Support for up to 16MB of off-chip Flash memory via dedicated QSPI bus

• DMA controller

• Fully-connected AHB crossbar

• Interpolator and integer divider peripherals

• On-chip programmable LDO to generate a core voltage

• 2 on-chip PLLs to generate USB and core clocks

• 30 GPIO pins, 4 of which can be used as analog inputs

• Peripherals

ATMEGA328 Features

• High-performance design

• Low power consumption

• The total number of Analog Input pins are 6

• Contains 32 kilobytes of flash memory

• Contains 2 kilobytes of SRAM

• Contains 1 kilobyte of EEPROM

• 16 megahertz clock speed

• Minimum & maximum temperature -40 degree centigrade to 105 degrees centigrade

• The total number of Digital I/O pins are 14

• Advance RISC

• Lock program functionality for programming code security

• Contains a total of three timers two 8-bit and one 16 bit

• The total number of I/O pins are 23

• The total number of PWM channels are 6

• Minimum and maximum operating voltage from 1.8V DC to 5.5V DC

ESP32 Features

Processors:

• CPU: Xtensa dual-core (or single-core) 32-bit LX6 microprocessor, operating at 160 or 240 MHz and performing at up to 600 DMIPS

• Ultra-low-power (ULP) co-processor

• Memory: 320 KiB RAM, 448 KiB ROM

Wireless connectivity:

• Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n

• Bluetooth: v4.2 BR/EDR and BLE (shares the radio with Wi-Fi)

Peripheral interfaces:

• 34 × programmable GPIOs

• 12-bit SAR ADC up to 18 channels

• 2 × 8-bit DACs

• 10 × touch sensors (capacitive sensing GPIOs)

• 4 × SPI

• 2 × I²S interfaces

• 2 × I²C interfaces

• 3 × UART

• SD/SDIO/CE-ATA/MMC/eMMC host controller

• SDIO/SPI slave controller

• Ethernet MAC interface with dedicated DMA and planned IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol support[4]

• CAN bus 2.0

• Infrared remote controller (TX/RX, up to 8 channels)

• Motor PWM

• LED PWM (up to 16 channels)

• Hall effect sensor

• Ultra-low-power analog pre-amplifier

Security:

• IEEE 802.11 standard security features all supported, including WPA, WPA2, WPA3 (depending on the version)[5] and WAPI

• Secure boot

• Flash encryption

• 1024-bit OTP, up to 768-bit for customers

• Cryptographic hardware acceleration: AES, SHA-2, RSA, elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), random number generator (RNG)

Power management:

• Internal low-dropout regulator

• Individual power domain for RTC

• 5 μA deep sleep current

• Wake up from GPIO interrupt, timer, ADC measurements, capacitive touch sensor interrupt

STM32 Features

• ARM® 32-bit Cortex®-M3 CPU Core

• Memories

• Clock, reset and supply management

• Low-power

• 2 x 12-bit, 1 µs A/D converters (up to 16 channels)

• DMA

•Up to 80 fast I/O ports

• Debug mode

• 7 timers

• Up to 9 communication interfaces

• CRC calculation unit, 96-bit unique ID

• Packages are ECOPACK®

RP2040 Pinout

ATMEGA328 Pinout

ESP32 Pinout

STM Pinout

RP2040 Block Diagram

ATMEGA328 Block Diagram

ESP32 Block Diagram

STM Block Diagram

I mainly talk about the differences in processors between the RP2040, ATMEGA328, ESP32, and STM32. The Atmel single-core 8-bit ATmega328P chips that power the Arduino Uno Rev3 run at 16 MHz and have 2 kB of SRAM and just 28 kB of flash storage. With its 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ running at configurable frequencies up to 133 MHz, the Raspberry Pi Pico's RP2040 is significantly superior. 32-bit XTENSA ESP32 chips run the CPU with 80MHz Up to 240MHz and have a 520 Kilobytes RAM Size, while the 32-bit ARM Cortex M3/M4 STM32 chips run the CPU with 72MHz Both have a 20 Kilobytes RAM Size.

Microchip Technology Inc. is a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, providing low-risk product development, lower total system cost, and faster time to market for thousands of diverse customer applications worldwide. Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Microchip offers outstanding technical support along with dependable delivery and quality.