RS Components has announced the availability of the latest Raspberry Pi computer board: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+.
Building upon the phenomenal success of the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, which will remain in production, the new board is the latest product in the Raspberry Pi 3 range and targets a very wide range of users including students and enthusiasts, as well as experienced engineers and professionals who are developing innovative Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
The new Model B+ board is based upon the latest revision of the Broadcom BCM2837 System-on-Chip (SoC) processor running at 1.4GHz, more than 10% faster than the processor on the current Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.
The BCM2837 processor is a quad-core device that integrates an ARM A53 processor core cluster running the 64-bit ARMv8 instruction set. Multimedia handling capability of the processor includes support for H.264, MPEG-4 decode (1080p30), H.264 encode (1080p30) and OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0 graphics.
The Model B+ board also offers 1GB of LPDDR2 SDRAM memory and the latest wireless combo chip from Cypress Semiconductor, which provides dual-band 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz Wi-Fi according to IEEE802.11ac, as well as the Bluetooth 4.1 specification for BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) communications, delivering significantly reduced wireless compliance testing and thereby improving both cost and time to market.
The board also offers improved communications performance via Gigabit Ethernet over USB 2.0, delivering a maximum throughput of 300Mbps through the board’s four USB 2.0 ports; as well as retaining the extensive 40-pin GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) header connector. Audio/video connections include HDMI and MIPI DSI/CSI display/camera ports, as well as a four-pole stereo output and composite video port.
While offering improved thermal management compared to previous Raspberry Pi incarnations, the board also retains many of the same features and capabilities of previous-generation boards such as its small mechanical footprint of 85 x 56mm, making it suitable for the current official Raspberry Pi case, as well as many other third-party enclosures available on the market today.
“Once again, Raspberry Pi continues to evolve, boosting its processing and communications performance,” says Lindsley Ruth, CEO of Electrocomponents. “RS is honoured to continue partnering with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to deliver new capabilities for individual users and businesses looking to develop applications for the IoT, as well as other innovative concepts and designs.”
The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is manufactured exclusively in the UK under licence by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The New Raspberry Pi 3B+ will not yet be available in South Africa until ICASA approval has been received due to its WiFi capability. The Raspberry Pi Foundation will be submitting the application to ICASA and approval is expected around May/June. Once approved, RS Components SA will make the licenced board available to the South African Market.