The world woke up to a 256MB Raspberry Pi, or RBPi, Model B on 29 February 2012, and found it fascinating enough to order over eight million pieces since that date. That has made the Raspberry Pi Foundation of UK grow from a few volunteers to over sixty full-time employees, and the RBPi 2 an all-time best-selling SBC or single board computer.
In celebration of their fourth birthday, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has released their new model of the RBPi, keeping the price same as that for the existing RBPi 2. The new RBPi 3 offers over 10 times the performance of the RBPi 1, and comes with an integrated Bluetooth and wireless LAN, while keeping complete compatibility with the RBPi 1 & 2.
RBPi 3 Model B, as the new RBPi is called, features the BCM2837 SoC, belonging to the same family of Broadcom processors as its predecessors. That means all the projects and tutorials you relied on for the precise details of the RBPi hardware so far, will continue to work for the RBPi 3 as well.
RBPi 3 comes with a new ARM Cortex-A53, quad-core processor, custom-hardened and running at 1.2GHz. Along with various architectural enhancements, including a 33% increase in the clock speed, the new SBC offers a 50-60% increase in performance, when operating in 32-bit mode, over its immediate predecessor, the RBPi 2. Compared to the original RBPi, the new RBPi 3 gives nearly a ten-fold improvement in performance.
Designing the RBPi 3 with the BCM2837 was not a simple task, as it also contains the BCM3438 wireless combo chip, while it retains the same form factor as that of the RBPi 2 Model B. However, the designers have done it, with only the position of the LEDs changing to the other side of the SD card socket to allow the antenna to be positioned. Running an extensive and expensive wireless conformance campaign has allowed the Raspberry Pi Foundation launch the RBPi 3 in almost all countries simultaneously.
As all the connectors are in the same place, with the same functionality, you can house the RBPi 3 in the same enclosure that you had been using for the RBPi 2. Although the board still runs from the same 5V, 2A adapter via the micro-USB connector, it is recommended to upgrade to a 5V, 2.5A adapter if you are connecting power-hungry USB devices to the RBPi 3.
You will need an updated operating system – a Raspbian or NOOBS image – to take advantage of the functions of the new board. Although the new image remains 32-bit for the time being, there is likely to be a shift towards a 64-bit image after a few months. There is also a plan for an RBPi 3 Model A, with the form factor of the RBPi Model A+.
Industrial customers who want to stick with the RBPi 1 or RBPi 2, including Models B and B+, can do so because these models will be continued for as long as there is a demand for them. Additionally, VideoCore IV 3D will continue to be the 3D graphics core for all RBPi models.
