alt Hacker NewsAt its core those all ESP32 are microcontrollers with RISC-V cores[0] and integrated wifi. There's a plethora of peripheral configurations, hence all those ESP32-* variations. This one even has Gbit ethernet and audio, bit still, at it's core (hah), RISC-V with only a few hundred MHz and 512kB RAM. So the peripherals are now similar to a Raspberry Pi, but not the CPU part itself.
[0] older versions had Xtensa cores, not RISC-V.
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rpcope1 • today at 4:53 PM
It's worth noting that just because it says ESP32, doesn't mean it has WiFi (see the P4), and yeah not just RISC-V but also xtensa. I think it's more synonymous with "has a very shitty ADC" imo.
The most common ESP32 boards now are still the Xtensa ones. Not all of the variants have WiFi. Some only have one core. A lot more variants than many would expect.
Comparisons to a Raspberry Pi are a stretch IMO. It is not a single board computer. You can't hook it up to a monitor/TV, plug a mouse and keyboard in, and use it as a Linux PC. However, there are people who use Raspberry Pis like a microcontroller because of its GPIOs... but they should all be using microcontrollers instead.