The Raspberry Pi 5 is the latest in a series of DIY-friendly single-board computers (SBCs). It was introduced in late 2023 at a slightly higher price than the Pi 4, which understandably disappointed some. Now, less than a year after its original launch, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has introduced a cheaper version.
The Raspberry Pi 5 is now available with 2GB of RAM for $50. Previously, the cheapest model was 4GB for $60, and there’s also an 8GB model for $80. The smaller amount of RAM makes this version cheaper, but that’s not all.
Broadcom didn’t design the BCM2712 chipset specifically for the Raspberry Pi; it also sells it to other companies. That means the silicon has features that other companies need but the Pi doesn’t—even though those features take up space on the silicon chip, which drives up the price.
However, Broadcom has now introduced a new stepping (D0) that removes those extra bits, making the chipset a bit cheaper. That, plus the smaller amount of RAM, allowed Foundation to ship a 2GB model for $50. Whether the 4GB and 8GB models will switch to the new stepping remains to be seen (current boards use C1 stepping).
The BCM2712 is a 16nm IC with four Cortex-A76 cores (normally running at 2.4GHz) and a VideoCore VII GPU, along with other features like a PCIe 2.0 x1 bus that enables more advanced applications for the Pi 5 — for example, if you build a NAS server on it, you no longer need to connect your storage to a USB 3.0 port.
🚨 A new member joins the Raspberry Pi 5 family 🚨
This new entry-level product, with 2GB of RAM and priced at just $50, continues our mission to lower the cost of high-performance general-purpose computing.
Read me: https://t.co/2WAJIC9Qh2 photo:twitter.com/lVDHpWXsZv
— Raspberry Pi (@Raspberry_Pi) August 19, 2024
In addition to the BCM2712, the Pi 5 also has the RP1 chip, which was developed by Raspberry itself and enables the features that make the Pi a Pi, like the 40-pin connector. The RP1 also handles Ethernet, USB, display and camera ports, and more.
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