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New Multi-Core Raspberry Pi 2 Launches
First time accepted submitter MicroHex writes Coming in at the same $35 price-point that has come to be expected from the Raspberry Pi, it looks like the new Model 2 will be packing a quad-core ARM processor with a GB of RAM. From the article: "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+."
Man, you guys sure do edit harshly =p I don't see a word I wrote in there.
Still the same old problems with the GPU - no available driver except some binary blob that only works on some crufty-old, broken kernel. The Raspberry Pi Foundation would do better getting the GPU supported than just bumping the CPU. Having real access to the GPU would really open up the possibilities.
In the meantime I'll stick with the Cubietruck that has multi-core, 1GHz CPUs, 2 GiB of RAM, a SATA controller and a few other nice features. Unfortunately it has an unsupported GPU too (grrr!).
I was about to write something similar. I've developed on a Pi since the beginning and got accelerated, seamless video and picture loops to work for an ad platform currently in production. Changing to another board would cost another 300-500 hours in development costs. And that is if the other boards even have the features, most of the "other" boards don't have stable, open API to the GPU.
Mali GPUs which most of the "other boards" run just got decent acceleration in Linux in 2014, years after introduction of the chip because the manufacturer doesn't want to cooperate (and the android binary isn't a solution).
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not only that, but unlike alternatives, this is the only one I found that my TV's USB port can power. so my B+ is powered by TV and feeds the TV via HDMI. I'm not sure even this newer version will be able to live without an external power adaptor. I know nobody cares but I for one won't be upgrading anytime soon.
I did have to make some changes to raspbian's filesystems so that switching off TV didn't leave dirty bits on filesystems, but it was fun tinkering with it.
Yes, but can you get proper English language documentation for them? An AllWinner CPU is a good performer but the datasheet is only available in Chinese. The reason it's so cheap is that they didn't spend any money getting it translated or providing support overseas.
Also, Broadcom parts have a longer production life than the really low cost ones. They will be able to buy the same or fully compatible parts in five years time and keep making the same Raspberry Pi boards, providing a fixed hardware platform for people to work with. The low cost parts tend to get replaced fairly quickly. The people making those cheap phones will first look for some cheap SoCs and LCDs, then build the phone around them and make 100,000, and that's it. Parts are now obsolete and no longer manufactured, and the whole process repeats.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Did anyone notice this: http://dev.windows.com/en-us/featured/raspberrypi2support
Apperantly at zero cost... Might get interesting...
Different poster, but I did the same. Start by looking for 'read-only filesystem raspbian'. You'll find a bunch of tutorials which tell you how to stop logs etc. and mount the system in read-only mode, together with some nice scripts for dropping in and out of read/write mode for updates.
First link I found which looks relatively sane is http://blog.pi3g.com/2014/04/make-raspbian-system-read-only/
For me, I wanted to have the Pi in the car and the accessory power has a habit of going off without warning when I stop the car, this allowed me to have it auto-boot up when the power comes on and not worry about shutting down properly. I also have a USB hard-drive containing the media which is mounted read-only. All together I have an in-car wifi hotspot running a webserver which is capable of streaming music and movies to android devices - it keeps the kids happy on long journeys and all 3 of them are able to watch different movies. The only down-side is that I sometimes have to reboot after initial power-on as the usb HD appears to draw a little too much power during spin-up and doesn't always register.
What's with all the ACs in this thread, anyway? Yes, the original A/B models had crappy USB, but the A+/B+ have much-improved circuitry, to the point that for most things you'll never need to bother with adding a hub.
I set up a B+ as a Bluetooth audio streaming box, and, while running off a 1000 mA power supply, the USB is stout enough to power a keyboard, mouse, Bluetooth dongle, and a Focusrite USB audio interface, all plugged into the onboard USB ports. That would have never worked on the older model.
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!