Posted on 02/02/2015 5:11:44 AM PST by ShadowAce
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is likely to provoke a global geekgasm today with the surprise release of the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B: a turbocharged version of the B+ boasting a new Broadcom BCM2836 900MHz quad-core system-on-chip with 1GB of RAM – all of which will drive performance "at least 6x" that of the B+.
Speaking to The Register last week, foundation head honcho Eben Upton said: "I think it's a usable PC now. 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'. We've removed the caveat that you had to be a bit forgiving with it. Now it's just good."
The Raspberry Pi 2 Model B.
Outwardly, there's little to distinguish the Pi 2 from the Pi 1 Model B+, as it's now designated.
At its heart, though, is the BCM2836 SoC, which according to Upton has been in development for a couple of years. It's "very, very similar" to its predecessor – the BCM2835 – but with four cores and "a little tweak to allow us to address the gig of RAM," he explained.
The BCM2835, as used in previous Pis, is a Broadcom GPU – the VideoCore IV – with a single 700MHz 32-bit ARM1176JZF-S application core glued in to run software. The system-on-chip is shipped with 256MB or 512MB of RAM stacked on top.
The new BCM2836, on the other hand, contains four 32-bit ARMv7 Cortex-A7 cores with 1GB of RAM (and the same VideoCore IV GPU).
We've given the new BCM2836 Pi 2 a quick blast, with SPB apprentice boffin Katarina having the honour of being one of the first to lay hands on the board. It seems nippy enough but just how it measures up remains to be seen.
Regarding the claimed 6x performance increase over the B+, Upton said: "That's one of those things where you ask 'how do you put a number on it?'"
"If you run a multi-threaded synthetic CPU benchmark on it, they all spit out a number that's about six. That's both optimistic and pessimistic. It's optimistic because, of course, those are multi-threaded benchmarks. It's pessimistic because I don't think those synthetic benchmarks punish the [ARM processor] hard enough."
The Broadcom BCM2836 chip in the new Pi 2.
Upton, a chip architect at Broadcom, continued: "Where the ARM11 starts to fall down really, particularly with the kind of small caches we have on the BCM2835, is when it starts to run actual applications. I think we ran SunSpider [on the BCM2836] and even though that's going to be a single threaded benchmark, that was something like 3x performance just on a single core.
"So we figured, what's a defensible number, and [six] is the number that comes out of SysBench. We just wanted to have an answer when someone asked 'Where did you come up with that?'"
Fair enough. So, what might people do with this extra speed? Upton reckons it'll be handy "probably in the embedded makery world, for some image processing stuff."
He elaborated: "There are a lot of people who want to do computer vision things like OpenCV. You can optimise OpenCV pretty well to run on the DSPs that are in Pi 1, but in the end there's just no substitute for just lots more CPU performance."
Another view of the Pi 2.
Quite so. Agreeably, the Pi 2 will sell at the same price as the B+ – $35 – but the latter will live on.
Upton told us: "We've sold something like 60 or 70,000 freshly manufactured Bs since we launched the B+, because, for example, industrial customers don't want to move on. I think that although the Pi 2 and the B+ are going to be the same price, there will be a bunch of industrial customers who, for a variety of reasons, will just stick with the B+ because they're comfortable with it."
Accordingly, the predicted manufacturing mix for this year will be 80 per cent Pi 2, and 20 per cent Pi B+, as customers gradually migrate to the faster model.
The Pi 2 goes on sale today from the usual outlets. Upton promised 100,000 units available straight away, with Sony's plant in Pencoed, South Wales, churning out more at the rate of "thousands a day".
He said: "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."
For geeks on a really tight budget, the $20 Pi A+ will still be available, and Upton provocatively noted "there is a slot in the name space for a Raspberry Pi 2 Model A." Such a stripped-down version boasting the BCM2836 would doubtless be a winner, although the Raspberry Pi Foundation has no immediate plans to release it.
Our own Pi 2 is winging its way to Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) autopilot wrangler Linus Penzlien, to assist in programming our Vulture 2 spaceplane's autopilot, and when we suggested to Upton it'd be a nice present for the German brain surgeon, he said: "I'm hoping this is a nice present for Linux gods everywhere." ®
Computer on a dongle... I’ve used the original Pi, that was about two years ago (?), on a big flat screen, looked a little toylike, but completely usable for surfing and basic tasks. Embedded system in future smart TVs is coming, probably within a similar two year time frame. Thanks ShadowAce.
Whose idea at Microsoft was it to give the product demonstration to that guy?
Do they manufacture their own turbochargers, or do they source them from someone like Garrett?
I agree!! They could have found a much better spokesman. I am just amazed Microsoft came up with the Hololens. It will definitely be a major game changer.
I started getting into the Arduino controller boards. Will this do similar things? Allowing input and output?
first impression, ‘alex’ needs to go through puberty
second, the holo-computing thing has a very long way to go before it’s more then a cute thing for kids and gamers. as it is now, it’s on course to follow the google watch
My first questions were "what is it" and "where do I put it?"
I'm an engineer geek, something I freely admit. I'm probably going to break down and buy one of these to play with. What for? No idea, but I'll figure something out once I have it. ;-)
I believe that this would be "SPB apprentice boffin Katarina."
The limited I/O on the older Pi was my problem too, so I went wiht the Arduino. Looks like mabye the Pi 2 has fixed that.
Sometimes a pipe is just a pipe....
Put this in a case with a touch screen and you have a Linux/Win10 tablet. Win10 is to be FREE for this board.
Just bought 2 of the Model B+ :-(
But I’m sure I will find a task for them to perform :-)
Gotta get me some of these new model 2s for sure.
In a couple of years the Pi will probably be a quad core at 2.0Ghz or more with 4Gb ram or more and a better GPU.
Nice. I’d love to play with one of these sometime. Raspberry Pis strike me as an inexpensive way to put together a small Web or file server that you can just stash out of the way.
Actually there is absolutely NO comparison to the Google BS. It will be available shortly. This will eliminate the need for, keyboards, mice, monitors, TV’s, phones... Can you imagine the tutorial programs you could make with this, virtual pilots, surgeries, building anything. This is where thing are headed in the computer world.
“I’m a reasonably technical guy, and this article strikes me as pretty densely geeky. A lot of vocabulary for the initiated, and plenty of language to make the unwashed glaze over.”
How true! I looked it up on the ‘net and I am STILL glazed over.
It might confuse some that I/O is often on the on-off button of some devices.
I thought it was a snack pie and I wanted to eat one.
Who wants to buy me one for my birthday? lol
VOip (house phone), controller for any electronic gizmo in your home, weather stations, automatic garden irrigation controller, dedicated security system controller, etc.
We used one as a dedicated box to surf video and movie websites on the big screen using an android pad as the remote.
At around $40 each they are affordable geek play toys.
Thanks for this
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.