Choosing a microcontroller or processor
Answer six questions to find the kind of chip that fits your project, from small microcontrollers to Linux-class processors. You get a class, not a brand.
Answer six questions
The result is a type of chip, not a brand. Try different answers to compare.
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The six classes
Prices are single-unit listings from a named seller on the date shown. A chip's price is not a board's price, and neither is the cost of a finished product.
Before choosing, look beyond the specs. For a Linux part, check that its drivers are in the main Linux kernel, not only the vendor's own, so security updates stay easy. Check how long the vendor commits to making the part, often 10 or 15 years with conditions, and for a safety-critical product, whether it comes with safety documentation.
Microcontrollers
Everything on one chip. They run without an operating system or with a small RTOS, and can sleep on a battery.
General-purpose microcontrollerYour result A small, cheap, low-power chip that reads sensors, drives outputs and can run on a battery for years. Specs and 7 example partsHide details
At a glance
| CPU | One or two 8-bit or 32-bit cores (AVR, Cortex-M0+/M4/M33, RISC-V) |
|---|---|
| Clock | About 20 MHz to 200 MHz |
| Memory | 2 KB to a few hundred KB of SRAM, a few low-power parts reach megabytes; flash (or MRAM) on-chip on most parts |
| Software | Bare metal or a small RTOS |
| Power | Microamps asleep; under a milliamp to a few tens of milliamps running, depending on clock |
| Good for | Wrong for |
|---|---|
| Sensor nodes | Anything that needs Linux |
| Simple controllers and appliances | Camera processing |
| Learning embedded programming | Rich graphical interfaces, apart from a few display-oriented parts |
Example parts A to Z by vendor. Examples, not recommendations.
| Vendor | Part | Type | Cores | Accelerators and radios | Price seen in India |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ambiq | Apollo4 PlusIts 2 MB of non-volatile memory is MRAM, not flash. Ambiq's SPOT design runs transistors at sub-threshold voltage to cut active power; 96 MHz normally, 192 MHz in turboSPOT mode. | Chip only | 1× Cortex-M4F at 192 MHz | GPU: 2D/2.5D graphics accelerator with MIPI DSI display controller | ₹1,210DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Microchip | AVR64DD32 | Chip only | 1× AVR (8-bit) at 24 MHz | None listed | ₹124DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Raspberry Pi | Raspberry Pi Pico 2 WAn RP2350 board with a separate Infineon CYW43439 wireless chip: an example of adding a radio next to a general-purpose microcontroller. | Board | 2× Cortex-M33 or Hazard3 (RV32), chosen per core at boot at 150 MHz | Wi-Fi 4 (2.4 GHz), Bluetooth 5.2 | ₹716 – ₹8052 sellers, 6 October 2026qty 1, incl. GST, 2 listings |
| Raspberry Pi | RP2350Two core slots, each running an Arm Cortex-M33 or a Hazard3 RISC-V core (mixing allowed); only two cores run at once. Flash is external except on RP2354. Shipped on Pico 2 in 2024; bare chips on sale March 2025. | Chip only | 2× Cortex-M33 or Hazard3 (RV32), chosen per core at boot at 150 MHz | None listed | ₹110DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| STMicroelectronics | STM32U083 | Chip only | 1× Cortex-M0+ at 56 MHz | None listed | ₹393DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Texas Instruments | MSPM0L1306 | Chip only | 1× Cortex-M0+ at 32 MHz | None listed | ₹196DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| WCH | CH32V003Included as an example of how cheap a capable 32-bit MCU has become. | Chip only | 1× QingKe V2A (RV32EC) at 48 MHz | None listed | ₹34DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
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Wireless microcontrollerYour result A microcontroller with the radio on the same chip: most often Bluetooth LE, Thread and Zigbee, or Wi-Fi; a few add sub-GHz LoRa or cellular. Specs and 5 example partsHide details
At a glance
| CPU | One or two 32-bit cores (Cortex-M0+/M33, RISC-V, Xtensa), sometimes with a low-power helper core |
|---|---|
| Clock | About 48 to 240 MHz |
| Memory | Tens to hundreds of KB of SRAM |
| Software | Vendor SDK on FreeRTOS or Zephyr |
| Power | Microamps asleep; milliamps receiving; Wi-Fi transmit peaks are far higher than Bluetooth LE |
| Good for | Wrong for |
|---|---|
| Smart-home devices | Heavy local computation |
| Wearables and phone accessories | Wired-only designs, where the radio is wasted |
| Battery sensors that report over a radio |
Example parts A to Z by vendor. Examples, not recommendations.
| Vendor | Part | Type | Cores | Accelerators and radios | Price seen in India |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Espressif | ESP32-C6 | Chip only | 1× RV32 high-performance core at 160 MHz + 1× RV32 low-power core at 20 MHz | Wi-Fi 6 (2.4 GHz), Bluetooth LE 5, IEEE 802.15.4 (Thread, Zigbee) | ₹194DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Espressif | ESP32-S3Includes vector instructions aimed at signal processing and small neural networks. | Chip only | 2× Xtensa LX7 at 240 MHz | Wi-Fi 4 (2.4 GHz), Bluetooth LE 5 | ₹177DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Nordic Semiconductor | nRF54L15Non-volatile memory is RRAM rather than flash. | Chip only | 1× Cortex-M33 at 128 MHz + 1× RISC-V coprocessor (VPR) at 128 MHz | Bluetooth LE (incl. Channel Sounding), IEEE 802.15.4 (Thread, Zigbee), Proprietary 2.4 GHz | ₹419DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Silicon Labs | EFR32MG24 | Chip only | 1× Cortex-M33 at 78 MHz | NPU: Matrix Vector Processor (MVP) for ML inference; only on some ordering codes; Bluetooth LE 5.3, IEEE 802.15.4 (Thread, Zigbee), Proprietary 2.4 GHz | ₹922DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Texas Instruments | CC2340R564 KB SRAM on the CC2340R53, 36 KB on the CC2340R52; both have 512 KB flash. | Chip only | 1× Cortex-M0+ at 48 MHz | Bluetooth LE 5.4, Zigbee, Thread, Proprietary 2.4 GHz | ₹340DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
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High-performance microcontrollerYour result The simplicity of a microcontroller, with hundreds of MHz, megabytes of RAM and, increasingly, a small NPU or camera interface. Specs and 4 example partsHide details
At a glance
| CPU | Cortex-M7/M55/M85 or RISC-V, sometimes with a second core |
|---|---|
| Clock | About 400 MHz to 1 GHz |
| Memory | About 0.75 to 4 MB of SRAM; flash often external |
| Software | Bare metal or RTOS, still no Linux |
| Power | Tens to a few hundred milliwatts active, more with an NPU or GPU busy |
| Acceleration | DSP or vector instructions; some parts add an NPU (hundreds of GOPS), a 2D GPU, a camera ISP or a video encoder |
| Good for | Wrong for |
|---|---|
| Touchscreen panels without Linux | Coin-cell battery life |
| Audio and vibration analysis | Software that expects Linux |
| Small vision models such as person detection |
Example parts A to Z by vendor. Examples, not recommendations.
| Vendor | Part | Type | Cores | Accelerators and radios | Price seen in India |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Espressif | ESP32-P4Has no radio of its own; boards pair it with a separate wireless chip. 400 MHz needs chip revision v3.x (2026); earlier silicon runs at up to 360 MHz. | Chip only | 2× RV32 high-performance core at 400 MHz + 1× RV32 low-power core at 40 MHz | ISP: Camera ISP and H.264 encoder (1080p30); GPU: 2D pixel-processing accelerator (PPA) | No INR listing found |
| NXP | i.MX RT11701 GHz on the M7 is for commercial-grade parts; industrial and automotive grades run it at up to 800 MHz. The orderable code priced here is marked not for new designs by DigiKey. | Chip only | 1× Cortex-M7 at 1 GHz + 1× Cortex-M4 at 400 MHz | GPU: 2D graphics (GPU2D, PXP) | ₹2,275DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Renesas | RA8M1Cortex-M85 includes Helium vector instructions for signal processing and ML. Flash is 1 or 2 MB depending on the part; the part priced here has 1 MB. | Chip only | 1× Cortex-M85 at 480 MHz | None listed | ₹1,453DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| STMicroelectronics | STM32N657 | Chip only | 1× Cortex-M55 at 800 MHz | NPU: Neural-ART Accelerator, up to 600 GOPS at 1 GHz (288 MAC/cycle); precision not stated beside the figure; GPU: NeoChrom 2.5D GPU; ISP: Image signal processor for MIPI CSI-2 cameras, plus H.264 encoder (1080p30) | ₹2,556DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
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Application processors
They use external memory and run a full operating system such as Linux, at the cost of more power and complexity.
Entry application processorYour result The smallest chips that run Linux well: one or two efficient cores, often with a microcontroller core alongside. Specs and 6 example partsHide details
At a glance
| CPU | 1 or 2 cores (Cortex-A7/A35/A55, RISC-V), often plus a Cortex-M |
|---|---|
| Clock | About 0.8 to 1.7 GHz |
| Memory | External DRAM, 256 MB to 4 GB |
| Software | Embedded Linux (Yocto, Buildroot); RTOS on the companion core |
| Power | The lowest of the Linux-capable classes; usually fanless. Real figures depend on load, memory and peripherals, so measure your own board |
| Acceleration | Some parts add a small NPU (around 0.5 to 1.5 TOPS) |
| Good for | Wrong for |
|---|---|
| Industrial HMIs and gateways | Years on a small battery |
| Linux devices on a power budget | Heavy vision AI |
| Products that need Linux plus real-time control |
Example parts A to Z by vendor. Examples, not recommendations.
| Vendor | Part | Type | Cores | Accelerators and radios | Price seen in India |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microchip | SAMA7G54 | Chip only | 1× Cortex-A7 at 1 GHz | None listed | ₹977DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| NXP | i.MX 8ULPSome variants have one Cortex-A35 instead of two. | Chip only | 2× Cortex-A35 at 800 MHz + 1× Cortex-M33 at 216 MHz | DSP: Cadence HiFi 4 and Fusion DSP; GPU: 2D and 3D GPU (not on every variant) | ₹2,461DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| NXP | i.MX 93 | Chip only | 2× Cortex-A55 at 1.7 GHz + 1× Cortex-M33 at 250 MHz | NPU: Arm Ethos-U65 microNPU, 0.5 TOPS (precision not stated by NXP) | ₹2,635DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Renesas | RZ/FiveA single-core 64-bit RISC-V processor built for Linux gateways, with two Gigabit Ethernet ports. | Chip only | 1× Andes AX45MP (RV64) at 1 GHz | None listed | ₹1,356DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| STMicroelectronics | STM32MP157F | Chip only | 2× Cortex-A7 at 800 MHz + 1× Cortex-M4 at 209 MHz | GPU: 3D GPU (Vivante, OpenGL ES 2.0) | ₹1,698DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| STMicroelectronics | STM32MP257F | Chip only | 2× Cortex-A35 at 1.5 GHz + 1× Cortex-M33 at 400 MHz + 1× Cortex-M0+ at 200 MHz | NPU: NPU up to 1.35 TOPS (precision not stated in the sources checked); GPU: 3D GPU; ISP: Camera ISP | ₹3,066DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
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Mainstream application processorYour result Two- to four-core Linux processors that drive displays, run containers and act as gateways for many smaller devices. Specs and 8 example partsHide details
At a glance
| CPU | 2 to 4 cores (Cortex-A53/A55, RISC-V), often plus a Cortex-M |
|---|---|
| Clock | About 1 to 2 GHz |
| Memory | External DRAM, 512 MB to 8 GB |
| Software | Linux (Yocto, Debian-based), Android |
| Power | Higher than the entry class; usually still fanless, and normally mains-powered |
| Acceleration | 3D GPU; some parts add a 1 to 2.3 TOPS NPU |
| Good for | Wrong for |
|---|---|
| IoT gateways and hubs | Devices that must run for months on a battery |
| Touchscreen products | Hard real-time control without a companion core |
| Learning Linux on real hardware |
Example parts A to Z by vendor. Examples, not recommendations.
| Vendor | Part | Type | Cores | Accelerators and radios | Price seen in India |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arduino | Arduino UNO QLinux runs on the QRB2210, while a separate STM32U585 microcontroller on the same board handles real-time control: the Linux-plus-real-time pattern built from two chips. | Board | 4× Cortex-A53 (Qualcomm Dragonwing QRB2210) at 2 GHz + 1× Cortex-M33 (separate STM32U585 chip) at 160 MHz | GPU: Adreno 3D GPU; ISP: two ISPs; Wi-Fi 5 (dual-band), Bluetooth 5.1 | ₹5,637 – ₹7,548DigiKey India, 7 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST, 2 listings |
| NXP | i.MX 8M Plus | Chip only | 4× Cortex-A53 at 1.8 GHz + 1× Cortex-M7 at 800 MHz | NPU: Up to 2.3 TOPS (precision not stated by NXP); ISP: Dual camera ISP; DSP: HiFi 4 audio DSP | ₹5,248DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Raspberry Pi | Raspberry Pi Zero 2 WBuilt around the RP3A0 system-in-package, which combines a BCM2710A1 processor with the RAM. The resellers' pages do not say whether their prices include GST. | Board | 4× Cortex-A53 at 1 GHz | Wi-Fi 4 (2.4 GHz), Bluetooth 4.2 / BLE | ₹1,433 – ₹1,6993 sellers, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST, 3 listings |
| Renesas | RZ/G2L | Chip only | 2× Cortex-A55 at 1.2 GHz + 1× Cortex-M33 at 200 MHz | GPU: 3D GPU (Mali-G31) | ₹2,089DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Rockchip | RK3568 | Chip only | 4× Cortex-A55 at 2 GHz | NPU: 1 TOPS (precision not stated by Rockchip); GPU: Mali-G52 2EE 3D GPU | No INR listing found |
| StarFive | JH7110 | Chip only | 4× SiFive U74 (RV64) at 1.5 GHz | GPU: 3D GPU (Imagination BXE-4-32) | No INR listing found |
| StarFive | VisionFive 2 | Board | 4× SiFive U74 (RV64) at 1.5 GHz | None listed | ₹11,943 marketplaceHubtronics, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Texas Instruments | AM625 | Chip only | 4× Cortex-A53 at 1.4 GHz + 1× Cortex-M4F at 400 MHz | GPU: 3D GPU | ₹3,403DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
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High-performance application processorYour result Fast cores and powerful accelerators for vision, multiple cameras and on-device AI. Specs and 8 example partsHide details
At a glance
| CPU | 4 to 8 cores: Cortex-A76/A78 class, usually paired with A55s; or many A55s; or x86-64 |
|---|---|
| Clock | About 1.7 to 3.4 GHz peak |
| Memory | External DRAM, 1 to 16 GB; 4 GB or more for larger models |
| Software | Linux, Ubuntu, Android, Windows IoT |
| Power | Several watts to tens of watts under load; plan a heatsink or fan from the start |
| Acceleration | NPU or GPU from about 2 to 67 TOPS. Vendors quote different precisions, and a sparse figure is about double the dense one |
| Good for | Wrong for |
|---|---|
| Multi-camera vision | Devices on small batteries |
| Local inference on larger models | Cost-sensitive products |
| Robotics | Fanless enclosures without thermal planning |
Example parts A to Z by vendor. Examples, not recommendations.
| Vendor | Part | Type | Cores | Accelerators and radios | Price seen in India |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broadcom | BCM2712Documented only as the processor in Raspberry Pi 5, Pi 500 and Compute Module 5. Distributors list those boards and modules, not the bare chip. | Chip only | 4× Cortex-A76 at 2.4 GHz | GPU: VideoCore VII | No INR listing found |
| Intel | Atom x7425Ex86 chip for embedded use with a 12 W TDP; 3.4 GHz is single-core turbo (1.5 GHz base). Supports Intel Time Coordinated Computing and a TSN Ethernet port for real-time networking. | Chip only | 4× Efficient-core (Alder Lake-N) at 3.4 GHz | GPU: Intel UHD Graphics, 24 execution units | No INR listing found |
| MediaTek | Genio 1200 | Chip only | 4× Cortex-A78 at 2.2 GHz + 4× Cortex-A55 at 2 GHz | NPU: AI processor (2x MDLA + 2x VP6), 4.8 TOPS INT8 combined (3.9 + 0.85); GPU: Mali-G57 MC5; DSP: HiFi 4 audio DSP | ₹7,733DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| NVIDIA | Jetson Orin Nano 8GBCPU 1.7 GHz and 67 TOPS need Super mode (JetPack 6.2, 25 W or MAXN SUPER); it launched at 1.5 GHz. Price: seller shows ₹43,109 and ₹50,868.62 (x1.18) without saying which includes GST. | System-on-module | 6× Cortex-A78AE at 1.7 GHz | GPU: Ampere GPU, 1024 CUDA and 32 Tensor cores; 67 TOPS sparse / 33 TOPS dense INT8 in Super mode (originally 40 / 20) | ₹43,109 marketplaceTanna TechBiz, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| NXP | i.MX 95Production launch May 2026 after a 2023 announcement. The A55s run at up to 2.0 GHz on commercial grade, 1.8 GHz on industrial. Cortex-M33 is 333 MHz in the datasheet, 250 MHz on NXP's product page. | Chip only | 6× Cortex-A55 at 2 GHz + 1× Cortex-M7 at 800 MHz + 1× Cortex-M33 at 333 MHz | NPU: eIQ Neutron NPU: 2 TOPS on NXP's product page; datasheet rev 8 states 8 eTOPS at 1 GHz; GPU: Arm Mali-G310 3D GPU, plus 2D GPU | ₹7,346DigiKey India, 6 October 2026qty 1, excl. GST |
| Qualcomm | QCS6490Wi-Fi and Bluetooth come from a companion chip, not the SoC. Qualcomm quotes 6 to 9 W typical. | Chip only | 1× Kryo 670 Gold Prime at 2.7 GHz + 3× Kryo 670 Gold at 2.4 GHz + 4× Kryo 670 Silver at 1.9 GHz | NPU: Qualcomm AI Engine (Hexagon 770), 12 dense TOPS (precision not stated); GPU: Adreno 643 | No INR listing found |
| Raspberry Pi | Raspberry Pi 5The approved resellers' pages do not say whether their prices include GST; the DigiKey price excludes it. | Board | 4× Cortex-A76 at 2.4 GHz | Wi-Fi 5 (dual-band), Bluetooth 5.0 / BLE | ₹4,675 – ₹29,2253 sellers, 6 October 2026qty 1, GST not stated, 7 listings |
| Rockchip | RK3588 | Chip only | 4× Cortex-A76 at 2.4 GHz + 4× Cortex-A55 | NPU: 6 TOPS, three cores; supports INT4/INT8/INT16/FP16/BF16/TF32 (precision behind the 6 TOPS not stated); GPU: Mali-G610 MC4 | No INR listing found |
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Spotted a mistake, or found this useful?
Tell usSources
- The Linux Kernel Driver Interface (stable-api-nonsense) · kernel.org · Project docs
- NXP Product Longevity · NXP · Vendor page
- Product Longevity Program (PLP) · Renesas · Vendor page
- ISO 26262-1:2018 Road vehicles: Functional safety, Part 1: Vocabulary · ISO · Standard
- IEC 61508: Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems · IEC · Standard
- Functional Safety Support for Arm-based Microcontrollers and Processors (SPRADF6) · Texas Instruments · Reference