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Raspberry Pi A+ Details Leaked
mikejuk writes Despite trying to keep it secret, a major Raspberry Pi retailer has published some details of the upcoming model A+ Raspberry Pi thanks to a product page that went live early. The board layout looks different and is much smaller than the model A or B+. Judging from the photograph, the A+ board encompasses the four standard mounting holes, which makes it approximately 56x65mm — the model B+ is 56x85mm.
The key improvement is the new 40-pin GPIO socket, which makes the model A+ fully compatible with the HAT expansion standard. This means that any new HAT expansion cards should now work with the A+. It also has what's likely a connector for the yet-unreleased Raspberry Pi touchscreen. Another welcome change is the micro SD slot. One downside of the A+ is that it still has only a single USB 2 connector.
The key improvement is the new 40-pin GPIO socket, which makes the model A+ fully compatible with the HAT expansion standard. This means that any new HAT expansion cards should now work with the A+. It also has what's likely a connector for the yet-unreleased Raspberry Pi touchscreen. Another welcome change is the micro SD slot. One downside of the A+ is that it still has only a single USB 2 connector.
I know, the Raspberry Pis are not truly powerful, but because of their low price and easy expandability, they are useful for so many creative projects.
For my own use, I was thinking of turning mine into an airplay-compatible receiver (I found that there is software for for that) and built it together with (wifi dongle and a little amp) into a very old radio cabinet. Nice to put in the kitchen.
It's still the same old slow chip designed for phones and tablets of years past. No USB3 and Ethernet sockets there.
The processor in the existing rpi is so slow compared to other (even similarly clocked) modern arm cores that one might seriously wonder if Intel isn't paying these folks to sabotage arm in the minds of developers.
So a new board design might fix some of the constant unreliablity, but will they replace the cpu with something that deserves the name computer more than it deserves the name microcontroller?
One downside of the A+ is that it still has only a single USB 2 connector.
There are two down sides worth noting. That's one of them; have they got USB figured out yet? Just one port is bad enough but if they bugger the polyfuses again... But the real problem is the RAM. 512MB is cramped. 256MB is unacceptable.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Oh, still has that DSI connector one cannot use because of missing software. And has a CSI connector for those 2$ cameras that are sold for 25$. I thank the Raspi for kicking off the ARM revolution, but now (after four non overclocked pis that died without warning) i simply hate it. I have moved on to boards that have better power filtering, overcurrent protection, tens of gpios more, sdcard interfaces that dont trash your card and work with any card model and all that at the same cost or cheaper.
Raspberry Pi A+ is too late. There is much better alternative for DIY embedded purposes - Arietta G25 (http://www.acmesystems.it/arietta). No kernel blobs needed, much smaller (53mm x 25mm) and comparable price.
The HAT sounds very much like it would become very, very useful. Automatically installed avanced I/O cards under Linux.
Easier than Groove or similar under Arduino.
I can't complain.
(I currently use two Raspberry - one Razberry and one Raspbmc. One for controlling LED strips would be great.)
They still spread the ports along two sides sides of the board! Put then on one side people and make the cases a lot easer to to make.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
There is also no word on what the device's power consumption is, but it has to be lower than the model B+ because it is basically the same design minus the Ethernet chip.
These no denying, the A+ is cute. RPI fans will stock up on them for more interesting projects that are slightly smaller than before (little sarcasm).
My only gripe, CPU is still the same, no USB3. Its as if the Raspberry Foundation made a great product a few years ago and are scared to try something new.
Just wish they would move on to another project with current/next gen tech, instead of rehashing the same old tech that doesnt really benefit anyone.
However, my Model B 256mb still runs great, so no reason to buy another model yet.
Upgrade the CPU and i'll buy one. Each to their own i guess.
Some rumours about a $5 price drop to just $20....
"One downside of the A+ is that it still has fewer features than the B+ version."
Ken
I thought the Raspberry Pis were meant to be named after BBC Micro models. We got the Model B and Model A (the latter of which mimicked the Model A BBC Micro in being less popular than the Model B), then the Model B+, which mimicked the short-lived improvement to the original BBC B.
;-)
There was never a BBC Micro Model A+, though. The next one in the series should be a Raspberry Pi Master Series, with numeric keypad.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Getting FRIST PSOT is a big deal on Slashdot. I am proud of every one I get and I give congrats to others when they get it.
I have noticed though that many first posts get reordered. It is not right to be taking away a man's (or woman's) first post like that!
Thank you all for taking the time to read this. You have a great community here.
Nuff said. Yippppeeee to all!
They can't have been trying to keep it secret very hard, cause they've been waving the boards about in TV interviews for a month at least.
Finally we know why Ebon and Co stomped on the Odroid-W.
There were several kinds of USB issue. Those related to USB power and polyfuses have been remedied. The B+ (and now A+) power circuitry is now done properly, not a cheap hack like on the models B and A.
But the biggest USB issue of all remains and will probably never be solved, because it is a hardware problem deep within the Broadcom BCM2835 SoC. This SoC contains just a partial USB controller which requires the CPU to handle in software some of the USB functionality that is missing in the hardware. Unfortunately the CPU cannot provide the required 1ms realtime response to USB events when it is busy, and so USB events are occasionally lost. That wreaks havoc on mice and keyboards, producing stuck keys, dangling or missed mouse clicks, and on the B/B+ also contributing to Ethernet packet loss because Ethernet runs over USB.
That fundamental USB problem isn't really fixable except by using a different SoC.
Since the beginning of the Pi, a big problem has been its lack of an audio-in jack. Instead tinkering about with that has required us to fiddle around with USB-based audio interfaces. Ick.
I've never understood the British use of the word 'mains' when talking about household wiring; it seems to imply there was / is 'secondary' or 'auxilliary' wiring.
For what it's worth, I have a first-run model B (256mb RAM) and yes the supply was short back then, I ordered it at launch (Feb) and got it in July, but i expected as much so it was never an issue. Last year I got a later model B (512mb RAM), no wait at all.
:)
I've never had any problems with either; the older one runs as a web and VoIP server, the second is my used by my 7 year old to play with Scratch. I have never regretted either purchase, although I will admit running Scratch can tax the Pi, but it is cheap enough to introduce my kid to Linux without making it their main machine.
For goodness sake, I have a 13year old desktop sporting a 1Ghz Celeron with 512MB ram that is hooked up to a tv and serves as a media player for my youngest. If you can't find a use for a cheap linux box with a somewhat modern GPU, stop whining and use Google.... or just don't buy it.
I was thinking that the Raspberry Pi would make a great calculator (with the inclusion of Mathematica and GNU tools), but there are no good cases to achieve this.
Unix is not a realtime operating system. Likewise, normal mainline Linux is not a realtime operating system either.
Every systems designer creating a board for Linux would be expected to know this, so picking a SoC that requires realtime response from a mainline Linux kernel was a severe design mistake by the board's designers.
You can call the inherent USB problems a fault with the SoC or a fault with the designer's choice of SoC, but playing with words won't make the problem go away. The undeniable fact is that this problem exists, has affected countless users of Raspberry Pi, was confirmed and explained by RPF hardware developers in the extremely long "Elephant" thread on the RPF forum, and is still in that very same state today because it is unfixable in practice.
Every use of USB that involves USB Split Transactions is affected by this fault and will see intermittent dropping of USB events. If your board doesn't exhibit any USB problems then it's not that your board doesn't have the fault (all BCM2835 have it), but simply because you are not currently using USB Split Transactions.