LONDON: UK based Raspberry Pi Foundation has revealed the Raspberry Pi 2 that comes armed with 2GB of RAM and a 900MHz quad-core ARM chip A7 processor.
Raspberry Pi 2 promises sweeter performance at no extra cost
The Raspberry Pi 2: six times sweeter at no extra cost. Source: Raspberry Pi Foundation
Raspberry Pi, the credit card-sized single-board computer that has fired the imagination of aspiring programmers everywhere just got faster.
Six times faster, to be exact, and without a price hike to boot.
UK-based Raspberry Pi Foundation has released the Raspberry Pi 2 that comes armed with 2GB of RAM and a 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor.
It’s a significant upgrade in specs, with the original Raspberry Pi Model B packing a 1 GB of RAM and single-core 700 MHz ARM chip.
The juiced-up new processor allows the Raspberry Pi 2 to not only run a range of Linux-based operating systems, including Ubuntu, but also Windows 10.
The Raspberry Pi 2-compatible version of Windows 10 will be available free of charge to makers.
While the key components have been enhanced the basic form of the Raspberry Pi remains untouched, with a microSD slot for storage, four USB ports, an HDMI connector and the board still runs via a 5V micro-USB power adapter.
Priced at $US35, the latest version of the pocket-PC costs the same as its predecessor and is fully backwards compatible with existing accessories and applications.
However, the head of Raspberry Pi Foundation, Eben Upton, says that users are likely to be surprised by the new kit’s performance.
Mr Upton told industry publication The Register that the improvements make Raspberry Pi 2 a far more usable PC.
“It was always the case that you could use a Raspberry Pi 1 as a PC but you had to say ‘this is a great PC in so far as it cost me 35 bucks’,” he said.
“We’ve removed the caveat that you had to be a bit forgiving with it. Now it’s just good.”
Speaking about the 6X performance boost, Mr Upton said that 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,” Upton said in a post.
Released in 2012, the original Raspberry Pi has been a hit selling more than four million units and Mr Upton expects it will take some time for Raspberry Pi B+ users to transition to the new model.
“If it’s as popular as I think it will be, I’m sure there be a little queue, but it won’t be the 2012 experience where the queue was six months long,” he told The Register.
Both the Raspberry Pi 1 Model B and Model B+ will continue to be made, while the entry-level Raspberry Pi A+, available for just $US20, will also remain available.
Raspberry Pi 2 is available to buy from Raspberry Foundation partners element14 and RS Components.
