Raspberry Pi 3 Launches — 50 percent faster than its predecessor, With Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and goes on sale for $35

A major new Raspberry Pi microprocessor has been announced today: the Pi 3 Model B board becomes the new top-of-the-line Pi, with a 64bit 1.2GHz quad-core chipset and 1GB RAM it’s being slated to offer a 50 per cent power bump over the Pi 2. But is still priced at just $35 — the original Model B Pi price-tag, four years on from its debut.

Round about this time last year the Pi Foundation launched the 900Mhz quad-core Pi 2 — which was 6x faster than the then top-of-the-Pi-line Model B+ board, and dubbed an affordable “entry-level PC”. Also priced at $35.

The Foundation is touting the Pi 3 as opening up “even more possibilities for IoT and embedded projects”. Speaking to the BBC, Pi founder Eben Upton said: “This is the first Pi you can stick behind your TV and completely forget about.”

“The two main things that people do with their Pi are use it as a PC replacement or use it as an embedded computer,” he added. “The Pi 3 is doubling down on both those things rather than going looking for new things to do.”

The really big deal here is the inclusion of built in wireless LAN and Bluetooth. The Pi 2 had Ethernet but makers wanting the board to support wireless connectivity had to add a wi-fi or Bluetooth dongle. The Pi 3 removes the need to buy wireless add-ons, so it’s being positioned for out-of-the-box IoT development and as a powerful IoT hub that can link together multiple in-home connected devices.

As well as having more built in connectivity options and more processing clout, the Pi 3 has improved power management and an upgraded switched power source — up to 2.5 Amps — allowing it to support more powerful external USB devices, according to the Foundation.
Early benchmarks suggest it will deliver a roughly 33 per cent bump on Pi 2 performance in aggregate.

Back in November, the Pi Foundation launched another new board: the single core 1GHz Pi Zero delivers a lot less on the processing performance front and lacks on-board connectivity options (a wi-fi dongle can be plugged into its micro-USB port) but it costs just $5 — a price-point that’s clearly targeting makers wanting to build individual IoT/connected devices.

The more powerful and well connected Pi 3 doubles down on the growth in IoT devices the Pi Zero was seeking to encourage — following on from the Pi 2, which was capable of running a version of Microsoft Windows that’s designed to support IoT apps (aka Windows 10 IoT; formerly called Windows Embedded).

At a launch event today the Foundation said it has worked closely with Microsoft to ensure full compatibility between the new Pi 3 board and Windows 10 IoT.

A “few hundred thousand” Pi 3 units are going on sale today, according to Upton.





Source: Techcrunch

Read More

Shrinking to Zero: The Raspberry Pi gets smaller and cheaper

It was launched in February 2012 with modest ambitions to give young people a small cheap programmable device - and has become Britain's most successful homegrown computer. Now Raspberry Pi is getting smaller and cheaper.

The latest edition is the Raspberry Pi Zero. It is slower than the full-size version (though faster than the original Raspberry Pi) and has fewer ports, but its main selling point is that it is so cheap. The Zero, which like its predecessors is being manufactured in Wales, will sell for £4 or $5. And subscribers of the Magpi, a Raspberry Pi magazine, will find a Zero attached to the cover of the magazine - possibly the first time that a computer has been a free giveaway.

"We still meet people for whom cost remains a barrier to entry," says Eben Upton, the man behind the whole project. He says driving down the cost of hardware has always been a key aim of the project, and he now expects more people to be able to get involved in computing.

The hope is that the whole project can be clear about its mission

But it looks more likely that existing users will snap them up as extra components in computing projects. Upton sees it being used in "internet of things" or robotics projects, where a smaller device may be needed, or as a media player.

Throughout its history, Raspberry Pi has found a bigger audience amongst middle-aged hobbyists rather than the school children who were its original target. That is likely to be the case at first with the Zero, though school computing clubs may may find it a useful addition to their projects.

With more than seven million Raspberry Pis sold so far, and 270,000 in October alone, there is no doubt that it has been a commercial success. The challenge for those behind the project is to keep on remembering that the aim is to enthuse and inspire young people about computing, not to maximise profit.

By putting Eben Upton in charge of the commercial operation and appointing Philip Colligan as chief executive of the charitable foundation, the hope is that the whole project can be clear about its mission.

Meanwhile however, there are rival cheap computing devices, from the Arduino to Beagle Black, which also seek to get young people interested in coding. And the Raspberry Pi Zero has raced ahead of the BBC's Microbit device, which will now be delivered to all Year 7 pupils in the UK early next year.

The Raspberry Pi was the right device at the right time, catching a wave of enthusiasm for improving understanding of computing. Now, in an increasingly crowded field, it will have to keep on innovating - while making sure that schools, teachers and children retain their enthusiasm for all things Raspberry Pi.

Source :BBC 

Read More