New Raspberry Pi 'B+' is nearly out

[Torand]

Chocolate sauce: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28263659

 

EDIT: just went on their website and found the official post they made about it: http://www.raspberrypi.org/introducing-raspberry-pi-model-b-plus/

 

 

 

 

A new version of the Raspberry Pi barebones computer has been released.

Called the B+, the updated version uses less power than its predecessors and will cost about $35 (£20).
 

The B+ can also power more peripherals without the need for a dedicated power source and has more connectors to help link it to other devices.

The new model is released as the Pi faces increasing competition from other tiny computers.
 

The B+ is based on the same Broadcom chip as earlier versions and has the same 512Mb of memory but a variety of other changes have been made to the device.

The analogue and composite video connector has been ditched in favour of a four-pole connector and the SD card slot has been replaced with a micro-SD card unit.
 

Better power management on the B+ will mean it can keep four USB peripherals going without requiring mains power or an external hub.

"We've been blown away by the projects that have been made possible through the original B boards and, with its new features, the B+ has massive potential to push the boundaries and drive further innovation," said Pi co-creator Eben Upton in a statement.
 

The B+ will be available via online electronics stores such as Element 14.

The Pi now faces much more competition from devices such as the Beaglebone Black, the Hummingboard, the APC 8750, the Android MK802 mini PC, Banana Pi and the Matrix TBS2910.

 

 

 

The improvements are incremental, nothing insane.

 

Same Broadcom chip at the heart of the operation, lower power consumption and higher power output on the USB ports to support connected devices that require more power, now uses micro SD instead of SD (possibly, bbc says 'micro sd card unit' not port, so it could be either). I wonder what the 'four-pole' connector is? never heard that term before.

 

Anyway, there it is. I probably won't be upgrading.

[Prodigydeadeye]

But can it run Minesweeper?

[iNothing]

Is it really worth the upgrade from the previous one, cause i just use myn as a media player

[Torand]

Is it really worth the upgrade from the previous one, cause i just use myn as a media player

 

Nah, not really. It's not more powerful, just more efficient.

 

Good for new users though.

[Phllips]

is it wrong that i still have no idea what it is please be nice 

[AMICLG]

More technical info @ http://hackaday.com/2014/07/13/introducing-the-raspberry-pi-b/
 

[TheSLSAMG]

I would buy it, but it is currently unavailable. I will probably end up with a Model B, since I can get it for the same price.

[step1041]

The 4 poll jack has video through it as well, so the audio and analog video are in the same port. There are also more GPIO pins.

 

To be honest I was kind of expecting a bit more of an upgrade. Its been 2 years since the last one and they are still using the same processor. I would have thought with the time that has passed since its first release there would have been slight improvements to the processor beyond power efficiency. Although I might just be crazy and was expecting too much. 

[kuddlesworth9419]

Is it powerful enough to run Linux Mint.

[LAwLz]

The 4 poll jack has video through it as well, so the audio and analog video are in the same port. There are also more GPIO pins.

 

To be honest I was kind of expecting a bit more of an upgrade. Its been 2 years since the last one and they are still using the same processor. I would have thought with the time that has passed since its first release there would have been slight improvements to the processor beyond power efficiency. Although I might just be crazy and was expecting too much.

Well the point is so make it as cheap as possible. One fun thing about it is the limited processing capabilities. It would have been nice with a CPU upgrade but that's not that high up on their priorities.

[Linus_torvalds]

WTF? i though next raspberry pi will have at least 1 GHZ CPU. and they made new pi just more efficient? 

[Torand]

is it wrong that i still have no idea what it is please be nice 

 

It's a low performance, low power & price computer initially designed to help people in '3rd world' countries that couldn't afford to buy the conventional computer have access to one / a cheap pc that students can experiment on in schools/education environments thanks to its OS being loaded via SD card (you messed it up? ah well, just re-flash the SD card with the OS again and you are back up and running). It then inadvertently was picked up by other people to act as a cheap media steaming device, home automation controllers (like the arduino), robotics and as it has GPIO pin outs (general-purpose in-out) you can interface with electronics via programming languages in realtime which is cool, cheap 'super computers' / cluster computing (basically, buy loads of them and get them to compute tasks together in unison instead of on their own, videos on YouTube of people doing it) (more for proof of concept and demonstrations of how super computing works), the list goes on...

 

Although the caveat is that they are based on ARM architecture and do not accept x86, meaning only certain specific linux distros, with the kernel compiled to ARM, work natively.

[step1041]

 

Although the caveat is that they are based on ARM architecture and do not accept x86, meaning only certain specific linux distros, with the kernel compiled to ARM, work natively.

 

This may make a good Fast As Possible episode, about the Raspberry Pi (small credit card PCs) or CPU architectures in general (ARM, x86, x64), although that may have been done already.

[JAKEBAB]

Maybe there just waiting for the snapdragon 810 to come out not that I have any idea what CPU they use I just know Qualcomm makes snapdragon which goes in phones maybe they will make a modified version for this?

[step1041]

Maybe there just waiting for the snapdragon 810 to come out not that I have any idea what CPU they use I just know Qualcomm makes snapdragon which goes in phones maybe they will make a modified version for this?

Probably not, keep in mind that the whole package still needs to cost $35 where smartphones with that chip will cost around $600 or more. The current chip is about as powerful as a Pentium II at 300mhz with a GPU like the first Xbox. I was hoping for something around a Pentium III by now.

[JAKEBAB]

Probably not, keep in mind that the whole package still needs to cost $35 where smartphones with that chip will cost around $600 or more. The current chip is about as powerful as a Pentium II at 300mhz with a GPU like the first Xbox. I was hoping for something around a Pentium III by now.

True but I wasn't talking about a low cost version and in Australia its like $60 used on eBay and like $100 for brand new

[landon418]

Well, if people read the post on their website, it says "This isn’t a “Raspberry Pi 2″, but rather the final evolution of the original Raspberry Pi."

[zanduh]

Dang. No processing upgrade

 

Any alternatives on the market with more power but still relatively cheap?

[Rassilon]

Pretty neat. I could run a controller directly off it. Makes it a lot better to me

[harrynowl]

What's something I can do with my original Raspberry Pi (512MB)?

 

It has been collecting dust- I used it as a webserver for a little while but got a real PC for that now.

[LAwLz]

What's something I can do with my original Raspberry Pi (512MB)?

 

It has been collecting dust- I used it as a webserver for a little while but got a real PC for that now.

I use it as an NES emulator. I got two NES controllers that connects via USB for it.

Pretty damn awesome if you ask me.

[harrynowl]

I use it as an NES emulator. I got two NES controllers that connects via USB for it.

Pretty damn awesome if you ask me.

I'm not old enough to have nostalgia for NES/SNES games

 

and I'm a graphics whore

[razor767]

Just in time as I was thinking about buying one.

[fringie]

They need to do a variant that's like 2x the price for people who don't mind paying the extra £20 as for most it's still not a big deal purchase. I know its not meant to have more oomfh but I want more oomfh .

[rashdanml]

Dang. No processing upgrade

 

Any alternatives on the market with more power but still relatively cheap?

http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/774426-radxa-the-100-quad-core-arm-raspberry-pi-alternative

 

There are a few more in the $100 range too. BeagleBone is another.