Raspberry Pi 3 Announced – Brings Faster CPU And Wireless Connectivity

Today is not just a birthday for the Raspberry Pi Foundation; it also marks the release of a new Raspberry Pi: version 3. With it comes not only a faster CPU, but also integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

On a special day four years ago, the very first Raspberry Pi was brought to market, with a very noble goal of bringing about a new era of not just cheap computing, but educational, too. The original Pi was not the most powerful computer on the market, but it was certainly the cheapest. It received several updates, model changes, a PCB redesign, spawned a new OS and support community, educational programs, and has since heralded a successor: the Raspberry Pi 2.

RPi 2 brought with it a major upgrade to the CPU, with a shift from a single-core 700MHz ARM-V6 to a quad-core 900MHz ARM Cortex-A7, increasing processing power by up to 6x over the original Pi. There were a number of other changes, too, such as the shift to a Micro-SD card, switch-mode power supply, and an improved USB stack. However, it was missing one thing that has been requested for a long time – wireless connectivity.

The RPi 3 is the first Raspberry Pi to include not just native Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), but also Bluetooth in the form of BT 4.1, complete with low-power mode or BT LE. Wireless connectivity is not the only change; the CPU has been upgraded yet again to a 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 running at 1.2GHz, making it 50% faster than the RPi 2 in single-core performance (or 10x faster than the original Pi).

The most amazing thing? The new Raspberry Pi 3 will still be the same $35 price we’ve come to expect from the foundation, despite the huge increase in performance and inclusion of wireless. Best of all, it doesn’t stop there. There are a myriad of other changes, too, which we’ll cover below.

The SoC includes the same VideoCore IV GPU by Broadcom, but this time it’s clocked at 400MHz instead of 250MHz. This might seem a bit disappointing, using the same architecture as the original Pi, but at this time, it’s the only ‘mostly open’ GPU going; however, the increase in speed does offer a couple of benefits.

First is the ability for it to decode H.264 1080p at 60fps. In an interview with The Pi Podcast, Eben Upton also mentioned initial support for H.265. Under test, the RPi 3 can decode nearly all 720p video in the new codec, but there’s only partial support for anything over, limiting it to 1080p at 30fps. Check out the podcast at around the 20-minute mark to hear more of the details. Greater support for H.265 is expected over the next 6 months.

The new wireless module supports 2.4GHz frequencies only, and not the 5GHz band. This is mostly a cost issue, but also there are size limitations on the PCB, since the RPi 3 uses the same layout as previous B+ models to maintain compatibility. Unlike the current Ethernet connection, 802.11 and Bluetooth support do not go through the USB stack, and thus won’t be sharing bandwidth with the already cramped interface. Wi-Fi is connected over an SDIO interface, and Bluetooth over UART. This effectively means that you can now hook up peripherals over BT without degrading Ethernet and USB storage bandwidth.

While 802.11n is supported, it’s limited to 150Mbps, but in practicality, this effectively becomes something close to 20-40Mbps. Even an external USB dongle would be limited to these sorts of speeds because of the cramped USB interface on the Pi.

The particular chip used for wireless comms also has another trick up its sleeve. As reported by Make Magazine, the module has support for an FM Receiver, and there appears to be unpopulated contacts on the back of the board for another antenna. Perhaps FM radio could be a new feature to modded onto the Pi in the future (without resorting to using the GPIO pins).

The Raspberry Pi 3 still has the same amount of RAM as the previous model, with just 1GB of LPDDR. This is unlikely to increase in the foreseeable future. The reasons cited are to do with both cost of 2GB chips (trying to keep the Pi at the $35 mark is pretty hard), but also to do with the pin count limit on the SoC, restricting what types of RAM can be used.

The 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU does bring with it an interesting conundrum for the Raspberry Pi community: whether a 64-bit OS should be developed. The CPU was chosen not explicitly for the 64-bit computation and addressing, but because of its 32-bit performance. The code base for the Pi is heavily invested in 32-bit support, too, so there appears to be little reason to jump ship at this time. Eben said in the interview linked earlier, that they will consider support for a 64-bit OS if a real performance benefit can be shown (64-bit processing is more than just about memory).

For the audio crowd, a great deal of refinement has been made on the on-board audio. While most will stick to HDMI or ‘put up with’ the analog audio port, the improvement to the software and tweaks to the hardware are welcome to audio community, or at least those that don’t want to fork over for a HAT and play around with some rather convoluted software libraries.

You can order the Raspberry Pi 3 from a number of retailers as they become available for $35. Farnel UK and Element 14 are good options in the States, although they should be appearing on Amazon anytime soon.