Data Sheet

5 | P a g e Espressif Systems Oct 12, 2013

ESP8266 802.11bgn Smart Device

2 Technology Overview

ESP8266 offers a complete and self-contained Wi-Fi networking solution, allowing it to either

host the application or to offload all Wi-Fi networking functions from another application

processor.

When ESP8266 hosts the application, and when it is the only application processor in the device,

it is able to boot up directly from an external ﬂash. It has integrated cache to improve the

performance of the system in such applications, and to minimize the memory requirements.

Alternately, serving as a Wi-Fi adapter, wireless internet access can be added to any

microcontroller-based design with simple connectivity through UART interface or the CPU

AHB bridge interface.

ESP8266 on-board processing and storage capabilities allow it to be integrated with the sensors

and other application specific devices through its GPIOs with minimal development up-front and

minimal loading during runtime. With its high degree of on-chip integration, which includes the

antenna switch balun, power management converters, it requires minimal external circuitry, and

the entire solution, including front-end module, is designed to occupy minimal PCB area.

Sophisticated system-level features include fast sleep/wake context switching for energy-

efficient VoIP, adaptive radio biasing for low-power operation, advance signal processing, and

spur cancellation and radio co-existence features for common cellular, Bluetooth, DDR, LVDS,

LCD interference mitigation.