Makers, students, and teachers rejoice! A new Raspberry Pi computer has just been revealed and it's being lauded as six-times more powerful than its predecessor while retaining the same low cost. Like the Model B+ before it, the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B is priced at £22.85/$35, but unlike the former, Raspberry Pi 2 is practically as advanced as a budget laptop computer.
“You can do most of the things with this that you can do with a PC. You can surf the web, you can watch videos, you can play games like Minecraft. But we also bundle it with the tools that children need in order to learn how to program.” Eben Upton, founder of Raspberry Pi, told the BBC.
Primarily responsible for this increased horsepower are two notable upgrades to the CPU and RAM.
Raspberry Pi 2 has replaced its single-core processor Cortex A7 with a shiny quad-core CPU clocked at 800 MHz, rather than 700 MHz. This means that users can either tap the full potential of all four cores for additional computational power as needed, or use fewer cores to conserve power. Similarly, the new board now totes an entire gigabyte of RAM, double the amount that was previously used in the Model B+.
All other components and peripherals remain the same, meaning, users are still required to provide their own keyboard and mouse, television/monitor-connecting cables, and the MicroSD card containing a copy of the operating system. This is actually a good thing, as it ensures that years worth of community developed tutorials will remain relevant.
In addition, Raspberry Pi 2 retains the credit card size of the older models, allowing it fit within their enclosures.
While the entire affairs remains very similar the set-up of the original Raspberry Pi, users will, however, need to recompile the existing software, converting the code into a language suited for the new multi-core processor.
What's more, the Raspberry Pi 2 runs on a multitude of Linux-based systems right out-of-the-box, including a free version of Windows 10 in the near future, that's specifically tailored for the Pi 2.
“For the last six months we've been working closely with Microsoft to bring the forthcoming Windows 10 to Raspberry Pi 2. Microsoft will have much more to share over the coming months,” said a statement on the Raspberry Pi blog . “The Raspberry Pi 2-compatible version of Windows 10 will be available free of charge to makers.”
The Pi 2 is available today; pick up your copy here. Analysts are already foreshadowing that the Pi's brand recognition and well-established user base will translate to a massive success for the Pi 2.
“It's success is guaranteed – there's a great user-base already out there, but more importantly the Raspberry Pi has a level of name recognition that nobody else has been able to match yet,” said Chris Green, principal technology analyst at the Davies Murphy Group Europe consultancy.
Source: BBC via Raspberry Pi
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