The famous development board from the Raspberry Pi foundation, that has greatly impacted software development, now exists on a whole new level.
It was previously announced that the second generation of the Raspberry Pi wouldn’t be released until 2017. This encouraged a lot of people to invest in the RasPi B+ model. Much to the bemusement of those who have, the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B suddenly made an appearance.
The core architecture upgrade will enable more complex tasks and it will even allow the Pi 2 to run Android systems
The new dev board is said to be 6 times more powerful than the original. It is equipped with a BCM2836 processor, which contains 4 ARMv7 cores clocked at 900MHz, stepped up from the Pi 1’s single core ARM11 at 700MHz. The core architecture upgrade will enable more complex tasks and it will even allow the Pi 2 to run Android systems.
Another pleasing upgrade is the RAM storage which has doubled to 1GB, using an 8 gigabit LPDDR2 SDRAM from Micron. This upgrade will guarantee a smoother experience and better gaming performance on the Pi 2.
The form factor and ports layout of the Raspberry Pi 2 is the same as the B+ model, which means the B+ enclosures can still be used with the new version. LAN, USB, HDMI, audio, analog video, and GPIO ports are still the same set seen on the B+ model. Software that has been developed on previous versions of the dev board will still be compatible with Pi 2, as will all other daughter boards. However, in order to fully utilize the added power of the new processor, the software of the Pi 1 will need to be recompiled.
All upgrades and improvements applied to the RasPi 2 gives the user a closer-to-PC performance
Operating Systems
The RasPi 2 will be able to run Linux right out of the box, while an upgrade to Windows 10 OS will be available for free, later on.
SD cards loaded with OSes for Pi 1 boards will not work on Pi 2 because of the updated kernel that comes with the new processor. New SD cards with appropriate OS images will be needed to boot the Pi 2. Updated NOOBS and NOOBS Lite are readily available for download, as are Raspbian and Snappy Ubuntu OS Images.
All upgrades and improvements applied to the RasPi 2 gives the user a closer-to-PC performance.
More and more competitors are cropping up, but none of them are able to deliver the level of technology and specs at the price of the Raspberry Pis. The second generation of the credit-card-sized computer is now available for purchase at $35 from RS Components and Element 14 stores.
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