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.
