Raspberry Pi 2 has arrived!

There was some great news out of the Raspberry Pi Foundation today. They introduced the Raspberry Pi 2, a new version of the Raspberry Pi that features a brand new processor, the 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU and double the memory to 1GB. The new ARM7 processor opens the Raspberry world to a variety of new operation systems such as Windows and Snappy Ubuntu Core.

Compatibility

The Raspberry Pi 2 will keep the well known Raspberry Pi Model B form factor and will be compatible with the old Raspberry Pi 1 Model B. Even the price will be compatible with the old versions of the Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi 2 is introduced at a 35$ MSRP.

The new Raspberry Pi 2 board will be based on the B+ model which gave us extra USB ports, an 40pin extended GPIO port, hi-definition video output at 1080P, better audio via a new low-noise audio circuit and a micro SD card connector. All in all this is very exciting news for Raspberry Pi fans.

Here is the full specification for the new version of the Raspberry Pi:

  • Broadcom BCM2836 900MHz ARM Cortex-A7 quad-core processor with VideoCore IV dual-core GPU
  • GPU provides Open GL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
  • GPU is capable of 1Gpixel/s, 1.5Gtexel/s or 24GFLOPs with texture filtering and DMA infrastructure
  • 1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM
  • HD 1080p video output
  • Composite video (PAL/NTSC) output
  • Stereo audio output
  • 10/100 BaseT RJ45 Ethernet socket
  • HDMI 1.3 & 1.4 video/audio socket
  • 3.5mm 4-pole audio/composite video out jack socket
  • 4 x USB 2.0 sockets
  • 15-way MPI CSI-2 connector for Raspberry Pi HD video camera
  • 15-way Display Serial Interface connector
  • MicroSD card socket
  • Boots from MicroSD card, running a new version of the Linux operating system
  • 40-pin header for GPIO and serial buses (compatible with Raspberry Pi 1 26-pin header)
  • Power supply: +5V @ 2A via microUSB socket
  • Dimensions: 86 x 56 x 20mm

Getting started with Raspberry Pi 2

If you are looking to get started with the Raspberry Pi 2 you can pick one up here. Since there is a new ARM7 processor you also need to pickup a new version of your favorite OS – you can download the latest versions here:

The Raspberry Pi Foundation even announced that Windows 10 will be running on the new Raspberry Pi 2 once it is released. Head on over to WindowsOnDevices.com to sign-up for more information about Windows 10 on the Raspberry Pi or checkout Windows Development Centers IOT section here.