esp32-c5 support?

[psy0rz]

Without having looked at it myself, would it be possible to support this chip?

It is dualband, 2.4ghz and 5ghz, which would be ideal for streaming. ( https://github.com/psy0rz/ledstream/blob/main/README.md )

[mrcodetastic]

I asked Google Gemini:

The short answer is no, the ESP32-C5 cannot natively output 16-bit parallel data continuously via hardware DMA.

Here is a breakdown of why this won't work on the ESP32-C5, despite being possible on the chips you mentioned:

1. The DMA Engine (It exists, but...)

The ESP32-C5 does feature a General Purpose DMA (GDMA) controller. Just like the ESP32-S3, this GDMA engine fully supports hardware linked-list descriptors. You can theoretically set up circular, continuously looping linked lists without CPU intervention.

2. The Missing Peripheral (The bottleneck)

The bottleneck is not the DMA; it's the destination peripheral. DMA needs a hardware peripheral to consume its data and clock it out to the GPIO pins.

• On the ESP32: You can use the I2S peripheral in its undocumented "parallel mode."
• On the ESP32-S2 and ESP32-S3: Espressif introduced a dedicated LCD_CAM (LCD/Camera) peripheral specifically designed to clock out 8-bit, 16-bit, and 24-bit parallel data via DMA.
• On the ESP32-C5: As part of the more cost-optimized "C-series" (RISC-V) lineup, the C5 lacks the heavy-duty LCD_CAM peripheral. Furthermore, its I2S peripheral is strictly designed for standard serial audio (I2S, PCM, TDM) and does not support the parallel hack found on the original ESP32.

3. The Best the C5 Can Do

The highest parallel data width you can clock out via DMA on the ESP32-C5 is 8-bit, using the SPI peripheral configured in Octal SPI (OPI) mode. However, this is largely meant for memory interfaces (PSRAM/Flash) and is highly rigid compared to general-purpose 16-bit parallel output.

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The Verdict:
If you strictly require a 16-bit parallel data bus running continuously via hardware linked-list DMA, the ESP32-C5 is the wrong chip for the job. You will need to stick with the ESP32-S3 or look at Espressif's high-performance SoC, the ESP32-P4, which features an advanced MIPI and parallel LCD/Camera subsystem.