“Espressif announces mass production of the ESP8285 Wi-Fi chip today, adding a new member to Espressif’s Wi-Fi connectivity portfolio. This is a spinoff product of ESP8266, embedded with 1 MByte flash memory and specially designed for wearable devices, such as smartwatches, smart glasses, activity monitors and smart bracelets. According to market research firm IDC, the wearables industry is expected to grow rapidly over the next few years, with unit shipments estimated to exceed 112 million by 2018. Driven by a surging need for flash memory to support the growing range of devices, Espressif has offered a more focused alternative with ESP8285 to meet the demand for smaller PCB size as required in wearable applications. The chip includes an enhanced version of Tensilica’s L106 Diamond series 32-bit processor with flash memory of 1 MByte. Like its predecessor, ESP8285 is a highly integrated Wi-Fi SoC solution that will meet users’ continuous demands for efficient power usage, compact design and reliable performance in the Internet of Things industry.”