Heart of the Machine reports.
On June 24, Pi quietly launched its fourth generation product, the Raspberry Pi 4. The new development board has been completely reformed from the inside out. Thanks to the improvement of manufacturing process and architecture, the performance of the 4th generation is expected to be 2-4 times better than that of the previous generation raspberry PI 3B+. According to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the device offers “desktop performance comparable to entry-level x86 PC systems.”
Faced with such a satisfying new raspberry PI, maybe developers just want to say a word and play with it.
The fourth-generation raspberry PI, the developer’s favorite tablet, gets developers excited with more than triple computing performance, a new operating system, fully upgraded ports, 4GB of ram, 4K dual-screen support and a starting price of $35.
The creator of the Raspberry PI, Eben Upton, said in an interview that the latest raspberry PI 4 will boost minicomputers’ share of the global PC market.
Officially, the Raspberry PI 4 offers PC-level performance for the first time, while maintaining the docking capabilities and programmability of classic Raspberry PI products. The new PI has plenty of new features, such as a 1.5ghz Arm chip, support for dual HDMI 4K displays, gigabit Ethernet and more. So, for hobbyists using raspberry PI as HTPC/NAS, it will no longer be a bottleneck on your home network! Because the new product now supports USB 3.0 and gigabit Ethernet.
Raspberry PI 4 Model B
The new raspberry PI features the following:
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1.5ghz quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A72 CPU (approximately 3x performance improvement);
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1GB, 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4 SDRAM;
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Full-throughput Gigabit Ethernet;
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Dual-band 802.11AC wireless network;
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Bluetooth 5.0.
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Two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports;
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Support dual display, resolution up to 4K;
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VideoCore VI GPU, support OpenGL ES 3.x;
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HEVC video can be decoded by 4Kp60 hardware;
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Perfect compatibility with previous raspberry PI products.
The latest version of the Raspberry PI 4 features a new 1.5ghz Arm architecture CPU that is two to four times faster than the Cortex-A53 on the older Raspberry PI 3B+, a VideoCore GPU, and some new features: Dual HDMI 4K display, USB3 port, Gigabit Ethernet, multiple RAM options (up to 4GB).
The price of raspberry PI 4 is shown in the table below:
The Raspberry PI 4 is a very powerful single-board computer that starts at $35. The $35 machine comes with 1GB of ram, $45 gets 2GB, and $55 gets 4GB.
A new raspberry PI, a new journey
At first glance, the motherboard of the Raspberry PI 4 appears to be indistinguishable from the Raspberry PI 1B+, which was introduced in 2014. Both cost around $35. While the Raspberry PI 4 has inherited its old look, the new look has been tweaked to accommodate new and vastly improved features. The raspberry PI 4’s official blog gives some indication of its key features, but more often than not, the performance and stability of the new version will only be proven in use.
The power supply
The raspberry PI 4’s power port has been converted from USB Micro-B to USB-C, i.e. from Micro USB to Type-C. Because of the interface changes, it supports an additional 500mA of current and ensures that downstream USB devices have 1.2a of current, regardless of how heavily the CPU is loaded.
video
In order to support dual-screen output signals on the existing circuit board, the PI 3B+ type A (full-size) HDMI has been replaced with Type D (Micro) HDMI. This seems to mean that we will have to add another interface in the future.
Ethernet and USB
Gigabit Ethernet MagJack has been moved from the bottom right to the top right of the development version, greatly simplifying PCB routing. The position of the 4-PIN Power over Ethernet (PoE) connector has not changed, and the Raspberry PI 4 remains compatible with the PoE HAT.
The Ethernet controller on the primary SoC connects to the external Broadcom PHY through a dedicated RGMII link to provide full throughput. USB is provided via an external VLI controller through a PCI Express 2.0 Lane connection that provides 4Gbps bandwidth, which is shared between the four ports.
Three connectors on the right side of the development board protrude 1mm to simplify the case design. The layout of the connectors and assembly holes remains unchanged, ensuring that the PI 4 is compatible with existing HATS and other components.
The new Raspberry PI operating system
To support Pi 4, the Raspberry Pi Foundation also released a new operating system based on the upcoming Debian 10 Buster release. This will lead to a number of underlying technology improvements as well as a number of modern user interface and application updates, including Chromium 74 Web browser. PI will talk more about the benefits of this system later, but for now we can only get a taste of it with the screenshots below.
To immediate use Raspbian arcade, best to download the new version now, rather than upgrade existing version: https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/
This will ensure you start with a clean and usable Buster system. If you still want to upgrade, make a backup first.
Another point worth noting is that for Raspberry PI 4, officials are phasing out the graphics-driven stack from previous versions. In its place is a “V3D” driver called Mesa, developed by Broadcom’s Eric Anholt. There are many benefits to this change, including OpenGL’s accelerated Web browsing and desktop combination, and the ability for Windows under X to run 3D applications. It also eliminates about half of the closed source code lines in the platform.
