[martyvis]

Totally agree. Their release seems to make it seem that dual core with multiple hundred K of RAM is unique. The elephant in the room is while it has nice GPIO interfaces for sensors, you want onboard wireless for backhaul. Espressif have had this space for a couple of years now.

[kortex]

I can think of many application with no need for wireless backhaul, or where wireless becomes a liability. It boils down to cost, power, noise, security, frequency used, and complexity. LoRa or similar is probably better than Wifi for many applications. I like that it isn't opinionated about the wireless stack.

I'm guessing that lots of Picos will see use as enhanced GPIOs for Pi "motherships," which provide backhaul to multiple wired-in Picos.

In fact I have a project which could use a decidedly non-wireless USB GPIO, for use on an airplane imaging system.

[antattack]

What you say is true, however, $1 is a killer feature.

It can replace many IC and will make a very good addition to ESP32 which lacks pins for many projects. And, sometimes you want external chip so output is not affected by ESP32 reboots or freezes.

[6f8986c3]

For secure applications, on-board wireless makes your life hell. I'm actually pretty happy they didn't.

[nousermane]

Depending on application and how you define "secure", you might find that having an easily sniffable SPI/SDIO/UART connection between main MCU and wifi chip can be a weakness.

[6f8986c3]

I believe the point is "no wifi whatsoever".

If you need wifi, by all means, go integrated. But not everybody does.

[mschuster91]

The problem with onboard wireless is that this adds a boatload of complexity regarding certification in various regulatory domains, trademark compliance, ...

[nousermane]

...not to mention massive code size increase, for wifi/bt driver. And that driver is likely to come as an inscrutable binary blob.