Raspberry Pi Model Confusion

[Candysandwich99]

Im looking to make a retro console emulator with a raspberry pi.  The guide I was using said to get a raspberry pi 3 model B.  I was looking at this (http://blog.petrockblock.com/2015/07/04/powerblock-another-power-switch-for-the-raspberry-pi/) and its says it is compatable with Raspberry Pi (version 1, 2, and 3) models A+ and B+.  Does this mean that it is compatable with the 3b?  What is the difference between the 3 and the 3b? What does the "+" and the "b" mean?

[The Sloth]

yes it should be 

[Thirteen]

The letter in the model name corresponds to the board type.

Model B devices are (according to my knowledge) the only type of board still being manufactured. (A is no longer sold) Therefore all Raspberry Pi 3's are "3B".

The plus denotes additional changes, think of it as 2B+ meaning 2.5.

 

Its important to note that there was a change in the layout of the GPIO pin layout between the Raspberry Pi 1B and 2B which could become an issue if trying to run newer hats on the older devices.

[Linksys120n]

As far as I know there was only one model A and that was the very 1st one ever sold... It used a full sized SD card and had a dedicated port for RCA output... The PI 2 came out directly as a model B but then had a few minor tweaks made making the B+ then the Pi 3 came out directly as a model B and as far as I know that's the newest version to not go backwards like the Pi zero did...

 

I sold my Pi 3 because despite what they try to sell you... It's slow as shit.... I'm fairly certain that a Pentium 3 with the same amount of RAM is Faster than the Pi 3...

[Fourthdwarf]

There's some confusion in this thread. Let's look at the models in chronological order:

 

Model B: the first version manufactured. 800mhz single core armv6, with 256mb of ram, 2 USB ports, sdcard slot and an Ethernet port. $35

 

Model B rev.2: 800mhz, with 512mb ram. Same dual USB + Ethernet. $35

 

Model A: 800mhz, 256 mb, one USB, no Ethernet. $25

 

Model B+: new circuit board with rounded corners and 4 USB ports. Same "form factor" as pi 2/pi3. Uses microSD slot. $35

 

Compute module: 800mhz, 512mb ram 4gb flash. sodimm form factor. No sdcard slot. $30

 

Pi 2: quad 900mhz armv7 processor, 1gb of ram. $35

 

Pi zero: microHDMI, microSD and micro USB. Over clocked 1GHz single core processor. 512mb ram. $5

 

Pi 3: 1.2ghz quad core. WiFi& Bluetooth. 1GB ram. $35

 

Pi compute module 3: 1.2ghz quad core sodimm. 1gb ram, 4gb flash $35

 

Pi compute module 3L: 1.2GHZ quad core, 1gb ram, microSD slot. $25

 

Custom raspberry pi: Pi1/2/3/compute module with options for touchscreen, more ram, wireless & PoE. Minimum order quantity 1000, price on application.

[Tsuki]

On 5/20/2017 at 7:08 PM, Linksys120n said:

I sold my Pi 3 because despite what they try to sell you... It's slow as shit.... I'm fairly certain that a Pentium 3 with the same amount of RAM is Faster than the Pi 3...

depends on what you're trying to do with it. gaming(other than retro) and video playback are not going to be very good, especially if it has to do any kind of encoding, but its not really designed for that