The upcoming Raspberry Pi 5, set to launch in October, brings notable improvements over its 4-year-old predecessor. It features the Raspberry Pi Foundation's first in-house chip. These small, affordable computers, roughly the size of a credit card, come as bare circuit boards packed with electronic components, catering to DIY enthusiasts.
The Raspberry Pi 5, priced at $60 for 4GB of memory and $80 for 8GB, retains its signature form, appealing to those who enjoy creating projects like remote-controlled Lego cars, laser tripwires, web programming tutorials, AI-powered mood lights, or cellular automaton simulators. The exposed circuit board facilitates easy connections for displays, cellular modems, speakers, or other Raspberry Pi "HATs" (hardware attached on top).
While these machines may not suit everyone, they provide an affordable gateway to learning about computing technology, making them popular in STEM education programs.
Compared to its predecessor, the Raspberry Pi 5 boasts a quad-core Arm Broadcom processor that is two to three times faster, though it consumes slightly more power, maxing out at 12 watts. The new model also doubles input-output (I/O) performance, thanks to its first-ever in-house designed processor, which includes a dedicated PCIe connector for fast NVMe storage.
Additionally, the Raspberry Pi 5 supports two 4K displays running at 60 frames per second, features four USB data ports in the older USB-A format, and can run Windows 11 or Raspberry Pi OS, a version of Debian Linux.
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