A Raspberry Pi Birthday with the Raspberry Pi 3

By Martin L, on 28th February 2016

We’ve now had four years of Raspberry Pi production which has seen that device fill a decades long neglected void to take the world by storm with:

1. Raspberry Pi 1
2. Raspberry Pi 2
3. Raspberry Pi 0

And now the hot news has been leaked for their latest hot birthday variant:

• Raspberry Pi 3

OK, so who cares if they can’t count! 🙂

Their birthday details are enthused thus “Four years. One leap year. 8 million Raspberry Pis…” and counting:

Four Years of Pi

And The Register proudly announces the leaked details of the RasPi 3:

Raspberry Pi 3 to sport Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE – first photos emerge

From that, the critical details for us geeks are:

• Broadcom BCM2837 64bit ARMv7 Quad Core Processor running at 1.2GHz
• 1GB RAM
• BCM43143 WiFi on board
• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) on board
• 40pin extended GPIO
• 4x USB2 ports
• 4 pole Stereo output and Composite video port
• Full size HDMI
• CSI camera port for connecting the Raspberry Pi camera
• DSI display port for connecting the Raspberry Pi touch screen display
• Micro SD port for loading your operating system and storing data
• Upgraded switched Micro USB power source (now supports up to 2.4 Amps)
• Expected to have the same form factor has the Pi 2 Model B, however the LEDs will change position
• Farnell datasheet 2020826.pdf (Raspberry Pi 3)

We can expect their Pencoed production factory is going to be kept ever more busy with the one!

Excellent stuff and ever more FLOSS goodness to come!

Misc, RaspberryPi

3 comments to A Raspberry Pi Birthday with the Raspberry Pi 3

• Martin L

  29/02/2016 at 11:53 pm Log in to Reply

  HAPPY BIRTHDAY THE RASPBERRY PI! 🙂

  The Register gives an enthusiastic greeting, and the Raspberry Pi 3 can now be bought from multiple online sources.

  Tremendous stuff and all still for a mere $35.

  Only by the power of the UK and FLOSS?… 😉

   

  In brief summary:

  • A 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU (~10x the performance of Raspberry Pi 1)
  • Integrated 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1
  • Complete compatibility with Raspberry Pi 1 and 2

   

  The published specs are:

  • SoC: Broadcom BCM2837 (CPU, GPU, DSP, SDRAM)
  • CPU: Quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 clocked at 1.2 GHz
  • GPU: 400MHz VideoCore IV multimedia
  • More GPU info: OpenGL ES 2.0 (29 GFLOPS); 1080p60 MPEG-2 and VC-1 decoder (with license); ​1080p60 h.264/MPEG-4 AVC high-profile decoder and 1080p30 encoder
  • Memory: 1GB LPDDR2-900 SDRAM (i.e. 900MHz)
  • USB ports: 4
  • Video input: 15-pin MIPI camera interface (CSI) connector
  • Video outputs: HDMI, composite video (PAL and NTSC) via 3.5 mm jack
  • Audio input: I²S
  • Audio outputs: Analog via 3.5 mm jack; digital via HDMI and I²S
  • Storage: MicroSD
  • Network: 10/100Mbps Ethernet and 802.11n Wireless LAN
  • Peripherals: 17 GPIO plus specific functions, and HAT ID bus
  • Bluetooth: 4.1
  • Power rating: 1A (5.0 W)
  • Power source: 5 V via MicroUSB or GPIO header
  • Size: 85.60mm × 56.5mm
  • Weight: 45g (1.6 oz)

   

  There is good first comment given on Gordon @ Drogon: Raspberry Pi v3.

  Enjoy the real freedom to make IT work freely for you!

• Martin L

  01/03/2016 at 1:33 pm Log in to Reply

  And in quick succession for an ARM spin of Ubuntu with the Mate desktop, we have already for the RasPi 3:

  Ubuntu MATE for the Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3

   

  All very rapid indeed for good FLOSS freedom 🙂

• Martin L

  01/03/2016 at 1:46 pm Log in to Reply

  And then there is the Microsoft jump-on-the-bandwagon spin to see some of the RasPi action. As ever The Register gives a good take on the story:

  Microsoft releases Windows 10 preview for Raspberry Pi 3

  … Microsoft’s keen to be associated with the Pi mission of teaching computing to kiddies. But Redmond also has its own interests to advance, namely that that Windows 10 IoT Core provides hooks a-plenty to Azure, with the cloudy service offering all sorts of as-a-services that thing-makers can use to collect and crunch data.

  Supporting the Raspberry Pi 3 therefore also supports Microsoft’s ambitions to bite deep into the Thingernet…

   

  Shame about the associated EULA and tie-in to specific cloud services…

  True to form for The Register ‘commentards’, the comments to that article in my personal opinion give very apt comment…