Raspberry Pi foundation has announced the release of Raspberry Pi 2, a major upgrade to the existing Raspberry Pi Model B+ series. Raspberry Pi 2 boasts of a Broadcom 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor, 1GB of RAM and thus bringing as much as six times more performance to the existing Raspberry Pi models.
What is Raspberry Pi?
If Raspberry Pi only reminds of you a dessert, then perhaps you did not follow the news in past couple of years or perhaps you are not interested in DIY (do it yourself) stuffs. Raspberry Pi is a microcomputer which has modest features as a computer and is heavily used by hobbyists, students and developers across the world. Primarily aimed at encouraging children into computing and developing, Raspberry Pi caught everyone’s eye for its price tag of $20 and $35.
Though you would need to spend a little more than $35 to get your Raspberry Pi running, it still is known as “$35 computer” and has a cult fan following.
Raspberry Pi 2 features and specifications
Curious about Raspberry Pi 2 specs? Here is a quick list of Raspberry Pi 2 features:
- CPU:Â Broadcom BCM2836Â 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor
- RAM: 1 GB SDRAM
- USB Ports: 4 USB 2.0 ports  (same as Raspberry Pi B+)
- Network: 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet (same as Raspberry Pi B+)
- Power Ratings:Â 600 mA (3.0 W) (same as Raspberry Pi B+)
- Power Source: 5V Micro USB (same as previous models)
- Size: 85.60 mm × 56.5 mm (same as Raspberry Pi B+)
- Weight: 45 g (same as Raspberry Pi B+)
- Price: $35Â (same as Raspberry Pi B+)
Raspberry Pi 2 is six times more powerful than its predecessor model B+. As stated by the official Raspberry Pi blog:
The speedup varies between applications. We’ve seen single-threaded CPU benchmarks that speed up by as little as 1.5x, while Sunspider is around 4x faster, and NEON-enabled multicore video codecs can be over 20x faster. 6x is a typical figure for a multi-threaded CPU benchmark like SysBench.
Raspberry Pi 2 will run Windows 10 (for free?)
As mentioned on Raspberry Pi blog “The Raspberry Pi 2-compatible version of Windows 10 will be available free of charge to makers“, Raspberry Pi 2 will be able to run Windows 10. But the portion which says “free of charge” is a bit ambiguous as it states “free of charge to makers”. My guess is that only development version of Windows 10 will be available for free. By the way, the development version of Windows is free anyways, isn’t it?
Microsoft has already announced its own Raspberry Pi like device so it should not come as a surprise that Windows 10 can be run on microcomputer devices.
Where to buy Raspberry Pi 2?
As of now Raspberry Pi 2 is only available in US and UK. You can order it online it from Element 14 and RS Components. There is no news about the availability in Europe and rest of the world.
Good, since I only have the PI version one