dsi lcd panel raspberry pi made in china

6) Power on the Raspberry Pi and wait for a few seconds until the LCD displays normally. And the touch function can also work after the system starts.

We also provide an example for brightness adjusting (This program is only for Raspberry Pi OS system), you can download and install it by following commands:

Note: If you use the 2021-10-30-raspios-bullseye-armhf image or the laster version, please add the line dtoverlay=rpi-backlight to the config.txt file and reboot.

Waveshare 20109 - 5inch Capacitive Touch Screen LCD (H) Slimmed-Down Version, 800×480, HDMI, Toughened Glass Panel, Low Power Consumption - 5inch HDMI LCD (H) V4

Waveshare 11750 - 10.1inch Capacitive Touch Screen LCD (B), With Case And Toughened Glass Cover, 1280×800, HDMI, IPS Screen, Supports Raspberry Pi And PC, Low Power Consumption - 10.1inch HDMI LCD (B) (with case)

Inky wHAT is a 400x300 pixel electronic paper (ePaper / eInk / EPD) display for Raspberry Pi, a larger version of our popular Inky pHAT display, with more than 5x the number of pixels, and available in three colour schemes - red/black/white,...

A high-resolution 8", IPS, 1024x768, HDMI display, with Pimoroni-made display driver board and keypad, that"s perfect for building into projects like arcade cabinets, or just use it as a handy display for your Raspberry Pi!

Build a full-featured media center capable of playing nearly all of your digital media using any 40 pin Raspberry Pi and the Media Center HAT Raspberry Pi touchscreen display. Native support in...

Inky wHAT is a 400x300 pixel electronic paper (ePaper / eInk / EPD) display for Raspberry Pi, a larger version of our popular Inky pHAT display, with more than 5x the number of pixels - red/black/white version.

If you"re looking for the most compact li"l color display for a Raspberry Pi B+, Pi 2, & Pi 3 (most likely a Pi Zero) project, this might be just the thing you need!

In honour of Raspberry Pi"s 10th birthday, we"ve fused a RP2040 microcontroller with an EPD display to make a stylishly monochrome, maker friendly, e-paper badge(r)...

6) Power on the Raspberry Pi and wait for a few seconds until the LCD displays normally. And the touch function can also work after the system starts.

We also provide an example for brightness adjusting (This program is only for Raspberry Pi OS system), you can download and install it by following commands:

Note: If you use the 2021-10-30-raspios-bullseye-armhf image or the laster version, please add the line dtoverlay=rpi-backlight to the config.txt file and reboot.

Waveshare 20109 - 5inch Capacitive Touch Screen LCD (H) Slimmed-Down Version, 800×480, HDMI, Toughened Glass Panel, Low Power Consumption - 5inch HDMI LCD (H) V4

Waveshare 11750 - 10.1inch Capacitive Touch Screen LCD (B), With Case And Toughened Glass Cover, 1280×800, HDMI, IPS Screen, Supports Raspberry Pi And PC, Low Power Consumption - 10.1inch HDMI LCD (B) (with case)

Inky wHAT is a 400x300 pixel electronic paper (ePaper / eInk / EPD) display for Raspberry Pi, a larger version of our popular Inky pHAT display, with more than 5x the number of pixels, and available in three colour schemes - red/black/white,...

A high-resolution 8", IPS, 1024x768, HDMI display, with Pimoroni-made display driver board and keypad, that"s perfect for building into projects like arcade cabinets, or just use it as a handy display for your Raspberry Pi!

Build a full-featured media center capable of playing nearly all of your digital media using any 40 pin Raspberry Pi and the Media Center HAT Raspberry Pi touchscreen display. Native support in...

Inky wHAT is a 400x300 pixel electronic paper (ePaper / eInk / EPD) display for Raspberry Pi, a larger version of our popular Inky pHAT display, with more than 5x the number of pixels - red/black/white version.

If you"re looking for the most compact li"l color display for a Raspberry Pi B+, Pi 2, & Pi 3 (most likely a Pi Zero) project, this might be just the thing you need!

In honour of Raspberry Pi"s 10th birthday, we"ve fused a RP2040 microcontroller with an EPD display to make a stylishly monochrome, maker friendly, e-paper badge(r)...

Raspberry Pi (single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom.computer science in schools and in developing countries.target market for uses such as robotics. It is widely used in many areas, such as for weather monitoring,HDMI and USB standards.

After the release of the second board type, the Raspberry Pi Foundation set up a new entity, named Raspberry Pi Trading, and installed Eben Upton as CEO, with the responsibility of developing technology.Sony factory in Pencoed, Wales,

There are three series of Raspberry Pi, and several generations of each have been released. Raspberry Pi SBCs feature a Broadcom system on a chip (SoC) with an integrated ARM-compatible central processing unit (CPU) and on-chip graphics processing unit (GPU), while Raspberry Pi Pico has a RP2040 system on chip with an integrated ARM-compatible central processing unit (CPU).

In 2014, the Foundation released a board with an improved design, Raspberry Pi Model B+. These first-generation boards feature ARM11 processors, are approximately credit-card sized, and represent the standard mainline form factor. Improved A+ and B models were released within a year. A "Compute Module" was released in April 2014 for embedded applications.

The Raspberry Pi 2 was released in February 2015 and initially featured a 900 MHz 32-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor with 1 GB RAM. Revision 1.2 featured a 900 MHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor (the same as that in the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, but underclocked to 900 MHz).

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B was released in February 2016 with a 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, on-board 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB boot capabilities.

On Pi Day 2018, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ was launched with a faster 1.4 GHz processor, a three-times faster Gigabit Ethernet (throughput limited to ca. 300 Mbit/s by the internal USB 2.0 connection), and 2.4 / 5 GHz dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi (100 Mbit/s).Power over Ethernet (PoE) (with the add-on PoE HAT), USB boot and network boot (an SD card is no longer required).

The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B was released in June 2019ARM Cortex-A72 processor, on-board 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, full gigabit Ethernet (throughput not limited), two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, 1–8 GB of RAM, and dual-monitor support via a pair of micro HDMI (HDMI Type D) ports for up to 4K resolution. The version with 1 GB RAM has been abandoned and the prices of the 2 GB version have been reduced. The 8 GB version has a revised circuit board. The Pi 4 is also powered via a USB-C port, enabling additional power to be provided to downstream peripherals, when used with an appropriate PSU. But the Pi can only be operated with 5 volts and not 9 or 12 volts like other mini computers of this class. The initial Raspberry Pi 4 board has a design flaw where third-party e-marked USB cables, such as those used on Apple MacBooks, incorrectly identify it and refuse to provide power.Tom"s Hardware tested 14 different cables and found that 11 of them turned on and powered the Pi without issue.C0. The manufacturer is now using this chip for the Pi 4 B and Pi 400. However, the clock frequency of the Pi 4 B was not increased in the factory.

The Raspberry Pi 400 was released in November 2020. A modern example of a keyboard computer, it features 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM on a custom board derived from the existing Raspberry Pi 4 combined with a keyboard in a single case. The case was derived from that of the Raspberry Pi Keyboard.

A Raspberry Pi Zero with smaller size and reduced input/output (I/O) and general-purpose input/output (GPIO) capabilities was released in November 2015 for US$5.

On 28 October 2021, the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W was launched, a version of the Zero W with a system in a package (SiP) designed by Raspberry Pi and based on the Raspberry Pi 3.

Raspberry Pi Pico was released in January 2021 with a retail price of $4.microcontroller chip; the RP2040, which was designed by Raspberry Pi in the UK.flash memory. It is programmable in C, C++, Assembly, MicroPython, CircuitPython and Rust. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has partnered with Adafruit, Pimoroni, Arduino and SparkFun to build accessories for Raspberry Pi Pico and variety of other boards using RP2040 Silicon Platform.physical computing, similar in concept to an Arduino.

On 30 June 2022, the Raspberry Pi Pico W was launched, a version of the Pico with 802.11n Wi-Fi capability, for US$6. The CYW43439 wireless chip in the Pico W also supports Bluetooth, but the capability was not enabled at launch.

As of 4 May 2021, the Foundation is committed to manufacture most Pi models until at least January 2026. Even the 1 GB Pi 4B can still be specially-ordered.

The Raspberry Pi hardware has evolved through several versions that feature variations in the type of the central processing unit, amount of memory capacity, networking support, and peripheral-device support.

This block diagram describes models B, B+, A and A+. The Pi Zero models are similar, but lack the Ethernet and USB hub components. The Ethernet adapter is internally connected to an additional USB port. In Model A, A+, and the Pi Zero, the USB port is connected directly to the system on a chip (SoC). On the Pi 1 Model B+ and later models the USB/Ethernet chip contains a five-port USB hub, of which four ports are available, while the Pi 1 Model B only provides two. On the Pi Zero, the USB port is also connected directly to the SoC, but it uses a micro USB (OTG) port. Unlike all other Pi models, the 40 pin GPIO connector is omitted on the Pi Zero, with solderable through-holes only in the pin locations. The Pi Zero WH remedies this.

Processor speed ranges from 700 MHz to 1.4 GHz for the Pi 3 Model B+ or 1.5 GHz for the Pi 4; on-board memory ranges from 256 MB to 8 GB random-access memory (RAM), with only the Raspberry Pi 4 having more than 1 GB. Secure Digital (SD) cards in MicroSDHC form factor (SDHC on early models) are used to store the operating system and program memory, however some models also come with onboard eMMC storageSSD storage for its operating system.USB ports. For video output, HDMI and composite video are supported, with a standard 3.5 mm tip-ring-sleeve jack carrying mono audio together with composite video. Lower-level output is provided by a number of GPIO pins, which support common protocols like I²C. The B-models have an 8P8C Ethernet port and the Pi 3, Pi 4 and Pi Zero W have on-board Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth.

The Broadcom BCM2835 SoC used in the first generation Raspberry PiMHz 32-bit ARM1176JZF-S processor, VideoCore IV graphics processing unit (GPU),cache of 16 KB and a level 2 (L2) cache of 128 KB. The level 2 cache is used primarily by the GPU. The SoC is stacked underneath the RAM chip, so only its edge is visible. The ARM1176JZ(F)-S is the same CPU used in the original iPhone,clock rate, and mated with a much faster GPU.

The earlier V1.1 model of the Raspberry Pi 2 used a Broadcom BCM2836 SoC with a 900 MHz 32-bit, quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor, with 256 KB shared L2 cache.64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor,underclocked (by default) to the same 900 MHz CPU clock speed as the V1.1. The BCM2836 SoC is no longer in production as of late 2016.

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B uses a Broadcom BCM2837 SoC with a 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, with 512 KB shared L2 cache. The Model A+ and B+ are 1.4 GHz

The Raspberry Pi 4 uses a Broadcom BCM2711 SoC with a 1.5 GHz (later models: 1.8 GHz) 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 processor, with 1 MB shared L2 cache.interrupt controller poorly suited for virtualisation, the interrupt controller on this SoC is compatible with the ARM Generic Interrupt Controller (GIC) architecture 2.0, providing hardware support for interrupt distribution when using ARM virtualisation capabilities.

The Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W use the same Broadcom BCM2835 SoC as the first generation Raspberry Pi, although now running at 1 GHz CPU clock speed.

The Raspberry Pi Zero W 2 uses the RP3A0-AU CPU, a 1 GHz 64 bit ARM Cortex A53, on 512MB of SDRAM. Documentation states this "system-on-package" is a Broadcom BCM2710A1 package, using a BCM2837 Broadcom chip as core, which is an ARM v8 quad-core. The Raspberry Pi 3 also uses the BCM2837, but clocked at 1.2 GHz.

While operating at 700 MHz by default, the first generation Raspberry Pi provided a real-world performance roughly equivalent to 0.041 GFLOPS.Pentium II of 1997–99. The GPU provides 1 Gpixel/s or 1.5 Gtexel/s of graphics processing or 24 GFLOPS of general purpose computing performance. The graphical capabilities of the Raspberry Pi are roughly equivalent to the performance of the Xbox of 2001.

Raspberry Pi 2 V1.1 included a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU running at 900 MHz and 1 GB RAM. It was described as 4–6 times more powerful than its predecessor. The GPU was identical to the original.

Most Raspberry Pi systems-on-chip could be overclocked to 800 MHz, and some to 1000 MHz. There are reports the Raspberry Pi 2 can be similarly overclocked, in extreme cases, even to 1500 MHz (discarding all safety features and over-voltage limitations). In Raspberry Pi OS the overclocking options on boot can be made by a software command running "sudo raspi-config" without voiding the warranty.temperature reaches 85 °C (185 °F), but it is possible to override automatic over-voltage and overclocking settings (voiding the warranty); an appropriately sized heat sink is needed to protect the chip from serious overheating.

The CPU of the first and second generation Raspberry Pi board did not require cooling with a heat sink or fan, even when overclocked, but the Raspberry Pi 3 may generate more heat when overclocked.

The early designs of the Raspberry Pi Model A and B boards included only 256 MB of random access memory (RAM). Of this, the early beta Model B boards allocated 128 MB to the GPU by default, leaving only 128 MB for the CPU.framebuffer, and was likely to fail for any video or 3D. 128 MB was for heavy 3D processing, possibly also with video decoding.Nokia 701 uses 128 MB for the Broadcom VideoCore IV.

The later Model B with 512 MB RAM, was released on 15 October 2012 and was initially released with new standard memory split files (arm256_start.elf, arm384_start.elf, arm496_start.elf) with 256 MB, 384 MB, and 496 MB CPU RAM, and with 256 MB, 128 MB, and 16 MB video RAM, respectively. But about one week later, the foundation released a new version of start.elf that could read a new entry in config.txt (gpu_mem=xx) and could dynamically assign an amount of RAM (from 16 to 256 MB in 8 MB steps) to the GPU, obsoleting the older method of splitting memory, and a single start.elf worked the same for 256 MB and 512 MB Raspberry Pis.

The Model A, A+ and Pi Zero have no Ethernet circuitry and are commonly connected to a network using an external user-supplied USB Ethernet or Wi-Fi adapter. On the Model B and B+ the Ethernet port is provided by a built-in USB Ethernet adapter using the SMSC LAN9514 chip.802.11n (150 Mbit/s) and Bluetooth 4.1 (24 Mbit/s) based on the Broadcom BCM43438 FullMAC chip with no official support for monitor mode (though it was implemented through unofficial firmware patchingIEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, and Gigabit Ethernet (limited to approximately 300 Mbit/s by the USB 2.0 bus between it and the SoC). The Raspberry Pi 4 has full gigabit Ethernet (throughput is not limited as it is not funnelled via the USB chip.)

Raspberry Pi models with a newer chipset can boot from USB mass storage, such as from a flash drive. Booting from USB mass storage is not available in the original Raspberry Pi models, the Raspberry Pi Zero, the Raspberry Pi Pico, the Raspberry Pi 2 A models, and the Raspberry Pi 2 B models with versions lower than 1.2.

Although often pre-configured to operate as a headless computer, the Raspberry Pi may also optionally be operated with any generic USB computer keyboard and mouse.

Although the Raspberry Pi 3 does not have H.265 decoding hardware, the CPU is more powerful than its predecessors, potentially fast enough to allow the decoding of H.265-encoded videos in software.

The Raspberry Pis can also generate 576i and 480i composite video signals, as used on old-style (CRT) TV screens and less-expensive monitors through standard connectors – either RCA or 3.5 mm phono connector depending on model. The television signal standards supported are PAL-B/G/H/I/D, PAL-M, PAL-N, NTSC and NTSC-J.

Raspberry Pi 1 Models A+ and B+, Pi 2 Model B, Pi 3 Models A+, B and B+, Pi 4, and Pi Zero, Zero W, Zero WH and Zero W 2 have the same 40-pin pinout called J8 header.

Models A and B provide GPIO access to the ACT status LED using GPIO 16. Models A+ and B+ provide GPIO access to the ACT status LED using GPIO 47, and the power status LED using GPIO 35.

Various operating systems for the Raspberry Pi can be installed on a MicroSD or SD card, depending on the board and available adapters; seen here is the MicroSD slot located on the bottom of a Raspberry Pi 2 board.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation provides Raspberry Pi OS (formerly called Raspbian), a Debian-based Linux distribution for download, as well as third-party Ubuntu, Windows 10 IoT Core, RISC OS, LibreELEC (specialised media centre distribution)Kodi media centre and classroom management.Python and Scratch as the main programming languages, with support for many other languages.firmware is closed source, while unofficial open source is available.seL4 is also supported.

Broadcom VCOS – Proprietary operating system which includes an abstraction layer designed to integrate with existing kernels, such as ThreadX (which is used on the VideoCore4 processor), providing drivers and middleware for application development. In the case of the Raspberry Pi, this includes an application to start the ARM processor(s) and provide the publicly documented API over a mailbox interface, serving as its firmware. An incomplete source of a Linux port of VCOS is available as part of the reference graphics driver published by Broadcom.

Ultibo Core – OS-less unikerel Run Time Library based on Free Pascal. Lazarus IDE (Windows with 3rd party ports to Linux and MacOS). Most Pi models supported.

Alpine Linux – a Linux distribution based on musl and BusyBox, "designed for power users who appreciate security, simplicity and resource efficiency".

Slackware ARM – version 13.37 and later runs on the Raspberry Pi without modification.graphical user interface, Slackware"s default user environment is the textual shell / command line interface.Fluxbox window manager running under the X Window System requires an additional 48 MB of RAM.

Raspberry Pi can use a VideoCore IV GPU via a binary blob, which is loaded into the GPU at boot time from the SD-card, and additional software, that initially was closed source.OpenMax, OpenGL ES or OpenVG), which in turn call an open source driver inside the Linux kernel, which then calls the closed source VideoCore IV GPU driver code. The API of the kernel driver is specific for these closed libraries. Video applications use OpenMAX, OpenGL ES and OpenVG, which both in turn use EGL. OpenMAX and EGL use the open source kernel driver in turn.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation first announced it was working on a Vulkan driver in February 2020.Quake 3 at 100 frames per second on a 3B+ was revealed by a graphics engineer who had been working on it as a hobby project on 20 June.

The official firmware is a freely redistributablebinary blob, that is proprietary software.Linux kernel, with patches to remove the dependency on the mailbox interface being responsive. It is known to work on Raspberry Pi 1, 2 and 3, as well as some variants of Raspberry Pi Zero.

C/C++ Interpreter Ch – Released 3 January 2017, C/C++ interpreter Ch and Embedded Ch are released free for non-commercial use for Raspberry Pi, ChIDE is also included for the beginners to learn C/C++.

Julia – an interactive and cross-platform programming language/environment, that runs on the Pi 1 and later.Visual Studio Code, are available. See also Pi-specific GitHub repository JuliaBerry.

LiveCode – an educational RAD IDE descended from HyperCard using English-like language to write event-handlers for WYSIWYG widgets runnable on desktop, mobile and Raspberry Pi platforms.

Scratch – a cross-platform teaching IDE using visual blocks that stack like Lego, originally developed by MIT"s Life Long Kindergarten group. The Pi version is very heavily optimised

TensorFlow – an artificial intelligence framework developed by Google. The Raspberry Pi Foundation worked with Google to simplify the installation process through pre-built binaries.

Gertboard – A Raspberry Pi Foundation sanctioned device, designed for educational purposes, that expands the Raspberry Pi"s GPIO pins to allow interface with and control of LEDs, switches, analogue signals, sensors and other devices. It also includes an optional Arduino compatible controller to interface with the Pi.

Camera – On 14 May 2013, the foundation and the distributors RS Components & Premier Farnell/Element 14 launched the Raspberry Pi camera board alongside a firmware update to accommodate it.flexible flat cable that plugs into the CSI connector which is located between the Ethernet and HDMI ports. In Raspbian, the user must enable the use of the camera board by running Raspi-config and selecting the camera option. The camera module costs €20 in Europe (9 September 2013).OmniVision OV5647 image sensor and can produce 1080p, 720p and 640x480p video. The dimensions are 25 mm × 20 mm × 9 mm.

Infrared Camera – In October 2013, the foundation announced that they would begin producing a camera module without an infrared filter, called the Pi NoIR.

Official Display – On 8 September 2015, The foundation and the distributors RS Components & Premier Farnell/Element 14 launched the Raspberry Pi Touch Display

HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) expansion boards – Together with the Model B+, inspired by the Arduino shield boards, the interface for HAT boards was devised by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Each HAT board carries a small EEPROM (typically a CAT24C32WI-GT3)

In February 2015, a switched-mode power supply chip, designated U16, of the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B version 1.1 (the initially released version) was found to be vulnerable to flashes of light,xenon camera flashes and greenlaser pointers. The U16 chip has WL-CSP packaging, which exposes the bare silicon die. The Raspberry Pi Foundation blog recommended covering U16 with opaque material (such as Sugru or Blu-Tak) or putting the Raspberry Pi 2 in a case.

Technology writer Glyn Moody described the project in May 2011 as a "potential ITPRO.Ian Livingstone suggested that the BBC could be involved in building support for the device, possibly branding it as the BBC Nano.The Centre for Computing History strongly supports the Raspberry Pi project, feeling that it could "usher in a new era".ARM"s CEO Warren East at an event in Cambridge outlining Google"s ideas to improve UK science and technology education.

In October 2012, the Raspberry Pi won T3"s Innovation of the Year award,Mark Pesce cited a (borrowed) Raspberry Pi as the inspiration for his ambient device project MooresCloud.British Computer Society reacted to the announcement of enhanced specifications by stating, "it"s definitely something we"ll want to sink our teeth into."

The Raspberry Pi community was described by Jamie Ayre of FOSS software company AdaCore as one of the most exciting parts of the project.fanzine around the platform called Raspberry Jam events have been held across the UK and around the world.

In 2014, the Raspberry Pi Foundation hired a number of its community members including ex-teachers and software developers to launch a set of free learning resources for its website.

In 2018, NASA launched the JPL Open Source Rover Project, which is a scaled down version of Curiosity rover and uses a Raspberry Pi as the control module, to encourage students and hobbyists to get involved in mechanical, software, electronics, and robotics engineering.

There are a number of developers and applications that are using the Raspberry Pi for home automation. These programmers are making an effort to modify the Raspberry Pi into a cost-affordable solution in energy monitoring and power consumption. Because of the relatively low cost of the Raspberry Pi, this has become a popular and economical alternative to the more expensive commercial solutions.

In June 2014, Polish industrial automation manufacturer TECHBASE released ModBerry, an industrial computer based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module. The device has a number of interfaces, most notably RS-485/232 serial ports, digital and analogue inputs/outputs, CAN and economical 1-Wire buses, all of which are widely used in the automation industry. The design allows the use of the Compute Module in harsh industrial environments, leading to the conclusion that the Raspberry Pi is no longer limited to home and science projects, but can be widely used as an Industrial IoT solution and achieve goals of Industry 4.0.

In March 2018, SUSE announced commercial support for SUSE Linux Enterprise on the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B to support a number of undisclosed customers implementing industrial monitoring with the Raspberry Pi.

In January 2021, TECHBASE announced a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 cluster for AI accelerator, routing and file server use. The device contains one or more standard Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4s in an industrial DIN rail housing, with some versions containing one or more Coral Edge tensor processing units.

The Organelle is a portable synthesizer, a sampler, a sequencer, and an effects processor designed and assembled by Critter & Guitari. It incorporates a Raspberry Pi computer module running Linux.

OTTO is a digital camera created by Next Thing Co. It incorporates a Raspberry Pi Compute Module. It was successfully crowd-funded in a May 2014 Kickstarter campaign.

AutoPi TMU device is a telematics unit which is built on top of a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and incorporates the philosophy of which Raspberry Pi was built upon.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, demand increased primarily due to the increase in remote work, but also because of the use of many Raspberry Pi Zeros in ventilators for COVID-19 patients in countries such as Colombia,

A project was launched in December 2014 at an event held by the UK Space Agency. The Astro Pi was an augmented Raspberry Pi that included a sensor hat with a visible light or infrared camera. The Astro Pi competition, called Principia, was officially opened in January and was opened to all primary and secondary school aged children who were residents of the United Kingdom. During his mission, British ESA astronaut Tim Peake deployed the computers on board the International Space Station.

According to Upton, the name "Raspberry Pi" was chosen with "Raspberry" as an ode to a tradition of naming early computer companies after fruit, and "Pi" as a reference to the Python programming language.

In 2006, early concepts of the Raspberry Pi were based on the Atmel ATmega644 microcontroller. Its schematics and PCB layout are publicly available.trustee Eben Upton assembled a group of teachers, academics and computer enthusiasts to devise a computer to inspire children.

19 February 2012 – The first proof of concept SD card image that could be loaded onto an SD card to produce a preliminary operating system is released. The image was based on Debian 6.0 (Squeeze), with the LXDE desktop and the Midori browser, plus various programming tools. The image also runs on QEMU allowing the Raspberry Pi to be emulated on various other platforms.

29 February 2012 – Initial sales commence 29 February 2012web-shops of the two licensed manufacturers selling Raspberry Pi"s within the United Kingdom, Premier Farnell and RS Components, had their websites stalled by heavy web traffic immediately after the launch (RS Components briefly going down completely).

24 August 2012 – Hardware accelerated video (H.264) encoding becomes available after it became known that the existing licence also covered encoding. Formerly it was thought that encoding would be added with the release of the announced camera module.MPEG-2 and Microsoft"s VC-1. Also it was announced that the Pi will implement CEC, enabling it to be controlled with the television"s remote control.

6 September 2012 – Announcement that in future the bulk of Raspberry Pi units would be manufactured in the UK, at Sony"s manufacturing facility in Pencoed, Wales. The Foundation estimated that the plant would produce 30,000 units per month, and would create about 30 new jobs.

17 December 2012 – The Foundation, in collaboration with IndieCity and Velocix, opens the Pi Store, as a "one-stop shop for all your Raspberry Pi (software) needs". Using an application included in Raspbian, users can browse through several categories and download what they want. Software can also be uploaded for moderation and release.

3 June 2013 – "New Out of Box Software" or NOOBS is introduced. This makes the Raspberry Pi easier to use by simplifying the installation of an operating system. Instead of using specific software to prepare an SD card, a file is unzipped and the contents copied over to a FAT formatted (4 GB or bigger) SD card. That card can then be booted on the Raspberry Pi and a choice of six operating systems is presented for installation on the card. The system also contains a recovery partition that allows for the quick restoration of the installed OS, tools to modify the config.txt and an online help button and web browser which directs to the Raspberry Pi Forums.

28 February 2014 – On the day of the second anniversary of the Raspberry Pi, Broadcom, together with the Raspberry Pi foundation, announced the release of full documentation for the VideoCore IV graphics core,

7 April 2014 – The official Raspberry Pi blog announced the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, a device in a 200-pin DDR2 SO-DIMM-configured memory module (though not in any way compatible with such RAM), intended for consumer electronics designers to use as the core of their own products.

14 July 2014 – The official Raspberry Pi blog announced the Raspberry Pi Model B+, "the final evolution of the original Raspberry Pi. For the same price as the original Raspberry Pi model B, but incorporating numerous small improvements people have been asking for".

2 February 2015 – The official Raspberry Pi blog announced the Raspberry Pi 2. Looking like a Model B+, it has a 900 MHz quad-core ARMv7 Cortex-A7 CPU, twice the memory (for a total of 1 GB) and complete compatibility with the original generation of Raspberry Pis.

14 May 2015 – The price of Model B+ was decreased from US$35 to $25, purportedly as a "side effect of the production optimizations" from the Pi 2 development.CHIP, a lower-priced competitor discontinued in April 2017.

26 November 2015 – The Raspberry Pi Foundation launched the Raspberry Pi Zero, the smallest and cheapest member of the Raspberry Pi family yet, at 65 mm × 30 mm, and US$5. The Zero is similar to the Model A+ without camera and LCD connectors, while smaller and uses less power. It was given away with the Raspberry Pi magazine Magpi No. 40 that was distributed in the UK and US that day – the MagPi was sold out at almost every retailer internationally due to the freebie.

29 February 2016 – Raspberry Pi 3 with a BCM2837 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad processor based on the ARMv8 Cortex-A53, with built-in Wi-Fi BCM43438 802.11n 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth 4.1 Low Energy (BLE). Starting with a 32-bit Raspbian version, with a 64-bit version later to come if "there is value in moving to 64-bit mode". In the same announcement it was said that a new BCM2837 based Compute Module was expected to be introduced a few months later.

February 2016 – The Raspberry Pi Foundation announces that they had sold eight million devices (for all models combined), making it the best-selling UK personal computer, ahead of the Amstrad PCW.

25 April 2016 – Raspberry Pi Camera v2.1 announced with 8 Mpixels, in normal and NoIR (can receive IR) versions. The camera uses the Sony IMX219 chip with a resolution of 3280 × 2464. To make use of the new resolution the software has to be updated.

10 October 2016 – NEC Display Solutions announces that select models of commercial displays to be released in early 2017 will incorporate a Raspberry Pi 3 Compute Module.

14 October 2016 – Raspberry Pi Foundation announces their co-operation with NEC Display Solutions. They expect that the Raspberry Pi 3 Compute Module will be available to the general public by the end of 2016.

14 March 2018 – On Pi Day, Raspberry Pi Foundation introduced Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ with improvements in the Raspberry PI 3B computers performance, updated version of the Broadcom application processor, better wireless Wi-Fi and Bluetooth performance and addition of the 5 GHz band.

2 November 2020 – Raspberry Pi 400 launched. It is a keyboard which incorporates Raspberry Pi 4 into it. GPIO pins of the Raspberry Pi 4 are accessible.

21 January 2021 – Raspberry Pi Pico launched. It is the first microcontroller-class product from Raspberry Pi. It is based on RP2040 Microcontroller developed by Raspberry Pi.

Hattersley, Lucy. "Raspberry Pi 4, 3A+, Zero W – specs, benchmarks & thermal tests". The MagPi magazine. Raspberry Pi Trading Ltd. Retrieved 28 May 2020.

"Ten millionth Raspberry Pi, and a new kit – Raspberry Pi". 8 September 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2016. we"ve beaten our wildest dreams by three orders of magnitude

"Tested: 10+ Raspberry Pi 4 USB-C Cables That Work". Tom"s Hardware. 13 July 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2019. you"ll still need an AC adapter that delivers 5 volts and at least 3 amps of power so, unless you already have one, your best bet might be to buy the official Raspberry Pi 4 power supply, which comes with a built-in cable and goes for $8 to $10.

Upton, Eben (28 October 2021). "New product: Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W on sale now at $15". Raspberry Pi Trading. Retrieved 2 December 2021. Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W uses the same Broadcom BCM2710A1 SoC die as the launch version of Raspberry Pi 3

Halfacree, Gareth (March 2020). "Raspberry Pi 4 now comes with 2GB RAM Minimum". The MagPi. No. 91. Raspberry Pi Press. p. 6. Retrieved 28 May 2020. we say farewell to the 1GB model

Upton, Eben (20 October 2021). "1GB Raspberry Pi 4 makes a comeback". Raspberry Pi Trading. Retrieved 16 November 2021. we are reintroducing the 1GB variant at the $35 price point

Merten, Dr. Maik (14 September 2019). "Raspi-Kernschau – Das Prozessor-Innenleben des Raspberry Pi 4 im Detail" [Raspi-kernel-show – The inner life of the Raspberry Pi 4 processor in detail]. C"t (in German). 2019 (20): 164–169.

"Introducing turbo mode: up to 50% more performance for free". Raspberrypi.org. 19 September 2012. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2012.

"Pi Screen limited to 1920 by RISC OS:-". RISC OS Open. Retrieved 6 January 2016. 2048 × 1152 monitor is the highest resolution the Pi"s GPU can handle [presumably with non-low frame-rate ..] The monitors screen info confirms the GPU is outputting 2048×1152

Adams, James (3 April 2014). "Raspberry Pi Compute Module electrical schematic diagram" (PDF). Raspberry Pi Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 May 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.

Adams, James (3 April 2014). "Raspberry Pi Compute Module IO Board electrical schematic diagram" (PDF). Raspberry Pi Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 May 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.

Adams, James (7 April 2014). "Comment by James Adams on Compute Module announcement". Raspberry Pi Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.

Adams, James (7 April 2014). "Comment by James Adams on Compute Module announcement". Raspberry Pi Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.

Piltch, Avram; Halfacree 2019-11-14T19:43:44Z, Gareth. "Raspberry Pi 4 Review: The New Gold Standard for Single-Board Computing". Tom"s Hardware. Retrieved 23 December 2019.

Adams, James (7 April 2014). "Comment by James Adams on Compute Module announcement". Raspberry Pi Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.

"New video features! MPEG-2 and VC-1 decode, H.264 encode, CEC". Raspberry Pi Foundation. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 26 August 2012.

Sauter, Marc (2 February 2015). "Internet der Dinger: Windows 10 läuft kostenlos auf dem Raspberry Pi 2" [Internet of Things: Windows 10 runs free on the Raspberry Pi 2] (in German). Retrieved 8 February 2015.

Maker Retro (5 October 2021). "Freeplay GBA retropi, is it worth?". Platformer. Archived from the original on 5 October 2021. Retrieved 5 October 2021.

Martin Wimpress (29 February 2016). "Ubuntu Pi Flavours for Raspberry Pi 3 are released". Ubuntu Pi Flavour Maker. Archived from the original on 11 November 2017. Retrieved 30 July 2018.

"Building image for Raspberry Pi: up to date version". FreeBSD developer"s notebook. 1 February 2013. Archived from the original on 10 May 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2019.

"NetBSD 6.0 released with initial Raspberry Pi support". The H. 18 October 2012. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012.

several authors (7–9 February 2015). "Raspberry Pi Forums: Why is the PI2 camera-shy?". Raspberry Pi Forums. Raspberry Pi Foundation. Retrieved 9 February 2015.

Glyn, Moody (9 May 2011). "As British as Raspberry Pi?". Computerworld UK Open Enterprise blog. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2012.

Rockman, Simon (21 February 2012). "Is Raspberry Pi a mid-life crisis?". ZDNet. Retrieved 24 February 2012. Just because young teens led the way in computing in the 1980s doesn"t mean it should, will or can happen again. Those outside the tech age bubble have better things to do.

Upton, Liz (2 April 2014). "Welcome to our new website". Cambridge: Raspberry Pi Foundation. Archived from the original on 7 April 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2015.

"Raspberry Pi • View topic – Raspberry Pi as the successor of BBC Micro". raspberrypi.org. 22 April 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2013. The Foundation trustees tried very hard to get an agreement to use the BBC Micro name, right up to May 2011. /../ Eben touched on the subject a bit during his speech at the Beeb@30 celebration at the beginning of the month

Humphries, Matthew (28 July 2011). "Raspberry Pi $25 PC goes into alpha production". Geek.com. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2011.

"Getting ready for launch: first root filesystem available for download". Raspberry Pi Foundation. 17 February 2012. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2013.

Chung, Emily (24 February 2012). "$35 computer "Raspberry Pi" readies for launch". Canada: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 28 February 2012.

Brodkin, Jon (6 March 2013). "How two volunteers built the Raspberry Pi"s operating system". Ars Technica. Technology Lab / Information Technology. Archived from the original on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2012.

"Raspberry Pi lifts sale restrictions, open to bulk buyers". Electronista. Macintosh News Network. 16 July 2012. Archived from the original on 17 August 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2012.

"Want to buy more than one Raspberry Pi? Now you can!". Raspberrypi.org. 16 July 2012. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2012.

Upton, Eben (28 February 2014). "A birthday present from Broadcom". Raspberry Pi Foundation. Archived from the original on 27 July 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.

"New 8-megapixel camera board on sale at $25". 25 April 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2016. both visible-light and infrared cameras based on the Sony IMX219 8-megapixel sensor, at the same low price of $25. They"re available today from our partners RS Components and element14

The Mag Pi Magazine issue 53, Page 10, Raspberry Pi Foundation, On 25 November, it was confirmed that total sales of the Raspberry Pi have now topped 11 million.

Raspberry Pi gets $45M to meet demand for low-cost PCs and IoT, TechCrunch / Natasha Lomas@riptari(twitter), 21 September 2021, While, in total, the Pi Foundation also said it"s shipping over 42 million (Pi-powered) PCs to more than 100 countries.

Impact Stories: Raspberry Pi, The Index Projewct / Ditte Fiil Ravn, With 43 million computers sold worldwide and 95% of its products exported outside the UK, the globe has grown fond of pocket-sized computers.

One decade, 46 million units: Happy birthday, Raspberry Pi, The Register / Richard Speed, Upton tells us that approximately 46 million units have been manufactured to date.

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B has undergone extensive compliance testing, and meets the following European standards:Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive (EMC) 2014/30/EU

This capacitive touch display is one of those rare treasures, using the simple DSI ribbon cable connection to the Raspberry Pi - avoiding bulky HDMI solutions for an altogether more compact display option for your project!

What"s more, the inner mounting points on the rear of the display allow you to mount your Raspberry Pi (Model B hole format i.e. Pi 4, 3B+, 3A+) on the rear of the unit, adding to the compact factor. The outer mounting points then allow you to mount the display into your own custom enclosure or panel.

Please note: You will need to apply some simple configuration settings to your Raspberry Pi to use this display. Please see the Wiki for more information.

You can try to check which Pi you have by looking at the board layout and the components used, but this might not be very easy or reliable. Since the range of Pi models gives a significant difference in performance, this can be quite important, especially if not buying through the approved channels.

This model is based on a new PCB layout that includes previous build fixes from ECN0001 such us removal of the poly-fuses in series with the +5V power for USB devices, and other fixes reported by the community such as the erroneous connection of the LAN9512 VDD18CORE pins to the +1V8 power plane, addition of the 8-pin P5 header (non-populated) for extra GPIO pins, addition to the 2-pin P6 header (non-populated) for a RESET button, and other changes and improvements reported in more detail

The vast majority of the Raspberry Pis produced have a Green PCB, but Pis produced by Egoman_Technology_Corp (only available in the Far East) have a RedBlue

Announced on 29th Feb 2016 (full announcement from the Raspberry Pi Foundation). The Raspberry Pi 3 retains the same US$35 price point of the Raspberry Pi 2 model B while adding built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Announced on 2nd Feb 2015 (full announcement from the Raspberry Pi Foundation). The Raspberry Pi 2 retains the same US$35 price point of the model B+.

Announced: September 2012, Raspberry Pi Model B Rev 2.0 is now manufactured at Sony"s manufacturing plant on Pencoed, South Wales. Full announcement from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Element14 announcement on Raspberry Pi discussion board.

But there are a number of alternatives to the Raspberry Pi available that you can use to customize unique projects, whether you want more performance, AI, VR support, or a board rated for industrial use. Or maybe you simply want something smaller than the Raspberry Pi! And given there won"t be a new version of Raspberry Pi released in 2023, now is a great time to try something new.

I analyzed single-board computers based on processor type, graphics, RAM, and speed to find the best Raspberry Pi alternatives on the market. This guide to single-board computers can help you find the best option for your budget and needs.

This board has a number of nice features that make it ideal for hobbyists. I particularly appreciate the color-coded GPIO header, which makes it easy to recognize respective pin headers. Plus, the detailed silk-screen print on the face of the board makes it clear where everything goes. The Asus Tinker Board features an excellent processor, and the 16GB eMMC speed offers enough power for most projects.

Tech specs: Processor:Amlogic S922X -- 4x Cortex-A73 @ 2.2GHz, 2x Cortex-A53 @ 1.9GHz | Graphics:Mali-G52 GPU | RAM:2GB or 4GB DDR4 | Interface: eMMC socket with optional 8GB to 128GB | Features: 8MB SPI flash with boot select switch and Petitboot app | Ports: Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI 2.1 port for up to 4K@60Hz | Connectivity: 4x USB 3.0 ports

Tech specs:Processor: 4-Core 1.5GHz 64-bit CPU | RAM:8GB LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM Densities | Ports: 2x 4K HDMI interfaces 60fps H.265 (HEVC) video | Connectivity: Gigabit Ethernet PHY with IEEE 1588 support | Interface: Single-lane PCI Express 2.0 interface | Display:Dual MIPI DSI display, and dual MIPI CSI-2 camera interfaces | Graphics: VideoCore VI graphics, supporting OpenGL ES 3.x | Features: 28 GPIO pins, with up to 6 × UART, 6 × I2C and 5 × SPI

If you"re still hung up on Raspberry Pi, you may want to consider the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. It has most of the same features as the larger Raspberry Pi in a smaller package that you can plug into a carrier board. Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 incorporates a quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 processor, dual video output, and a wide selection of other interfaces. You can customize this SBC by connecting to your power supply of choice, and it includes the same ports as its larger sibling.

The Asus Tinker Board S R2.0 is ZDNET"s top pick overall. I"ve broken down each Raspberry Pi alternative below based on processor, storage, and speed. If one of these qualities is a priority for you, this analysis may help you choose the best single-board computer for you.Best Raspberry Pi alternativeProcessorStorageSpeed

Next, do some research. How much power and performance do you need? What operating system do you need to use? This SBC guide offers the best Raspberry alternatives, so you can find the board that fits your budget and needs.Choose this SBC...If you want...

I"ve personally tested every single-board computer in this list for quality, reliability, and ability to deliver on key propositions. Put simply, they all offer something that the Raspberry Pi doesn"t.

The Raspberry Pi is a great piece of hardware, but it"s been built within specific constraints that enable mass appeal. These SBCs take what the Raspberry Pi brought to the table further with features that allow you to customize your experience.

The Raspberry Pi Module 4 Compute is better suited to harsh industrial use. The small but durable powerhouse can handle environments that would otherwise destroy a lesser board.

These alternatives are a great next step if you want to expand on your SBC knowledge, the Raspberry Pi is a great tool for familiarizing yourself with the setup and GPIO pins. You can work through the basics from there!

There are various options. You can find a lot of generic cases out there to protect your Raspberry Pi or alternative SBC, and I recommend getting one. After all, if you"re investing in an SBC, you should protect it.

We chose a variety of Raspberry Pi alternatives based on performance, hardware options, and pricing. If these don"t work for you, here are some suitable alternatives:

A TFT touch screen combines the fundamental elements of a raspberry pi lcd with the advanced imagery TFT technology. These are the variants of raspberry pi lcd displays that most consumers see and use on a daily basis. While TFT displays use more energy than standard monochrome LCD displays, many models provide brighter and more detailed visuals than conventional screens.

Explore the extensive selection of wholesale raspberry pi lcd LCD displays, TFT, and HMI that can be used across a range of industries, including domestic, medical, industrial, automotive, and many others. You can choose from a number of standard industry sizes and find the raspber p i lcd that are applicable to your required use. If you would like options that allow a smaller environmental footprint due to low power consumption, you can browse the Chip-on-Glass (COG) LCDs. COGs are designed without PCBs so have a slimmer profile.

Alibaba.com features a broad collection of smart and advanced raspberry pi lcd equipped with bright, capacitive screens for the most affordable prices. These raspberry pi lcd are made implying the latest technologies for a better, enhanced, and smart viewing experience. These products are of optimal quality and are sustainable so that they can last for a long time. Buy these raspberry pi lcd from the leading wholesalers and suppliers at discounted prices and fabulous deals. The smart and capacitive raspberry pi lcd offered on the site are applicable for all types of ads displaying, mobile screens, LCD monitors, and many more. You can use them both for commercial as well as residential purposes. These marvellous raspberry pi lcd are provided with bright and strong backlights available in distinct colors for a wonderful screen viewing experience. These raspberry pi lcd are.

The Raspberry Pi computer has been a runaway success since its release two and a half years ago. With success comes imitation, and many new products are seeking to follow in the footsteps of the Raspberry Pi and cash in on the renewed interest in computing, programming, and hacking.

One of these hopefuls is the Banana Pi [1], which you could only describe as a Raspberry Pi clone. The Banana Pi was designed and built in Shenzhen, China, where a large number of your gadgets and other possessions are likely manufactured.

I find it a little bit disappointing to see boards coming out that are (to most people) such blatant clones of the Raspberry Pi and that do not currently give back to the community in the same way – but I suppose it would be naïve to assume this would not happen in today"s world. Having said that, the old saying goes "imitation is the highest form of flattery," and ultimately, I think that more choice in the open source marketplace can never be a bad thing. I guess the very fact that people are trying to build businesses on top of the Raspberry Pi ethos and form factor goes to show what an impressive and solid platform it is for everything from learning and hacking to industrial applications. So, without further ado, I"ll unpack this new product – the Banana Pi.

When I first saw the Banana Pi board on the Internet, it looked almost identical to the Raspberry Pi (Figure 1). Unlike the production version board (which is a dark blue – similar to the color of most Adafruit products), the original Banana Pi prototypes were green and were almost indistinguishable from the Raspberry Pi at a quick glance. Most of the components on the Banana Pi board also appeared to be in a similar position, which added to the similar appearance, although the Banana Pi has a few more connectors.

This similarity is somewhat of an illusion. A closer look reveals the overall size of the Raspberry Pi is approximately 56x85 mm, whereas the Banana Pi is 60x92 mm, which represents a size increase of approximately 16 percent in board surface area.

As you will see in Figure 2, this increase is quite significant. For a product that is a clone of the Raspberry Pi, this size differential is a problem because it means that you can"t use the same case for both units – even with significant modifications. Furthermore, the Banana Pi uses a slightly thinner 1-mm circuit board compared to the 1.5-mm board used on the Raspberry Pi.

The top of the Banana Pi looks a bit sparse in places because the processor and RAM chips are actually located on the underside of the board (Figure 3). The CPU is the large chip on the bottom, which says Allwinner A20 on it, and the RAM chips are the slightly smaller ones next to it. The RAM chips used on the Banana Pi are standard DDR3 RAM chips which, as you can see, are mounted separately from the CPU. On the Raspberry Pi, however, the RAM is mounted directly on top of the BCM2835 in a PoP (package on package) layout and is of the LPDDR2 type. LPDDR2 is a low-power RAM standard designed for use in battery powered and mobile devices and performs similarly, but more efficiently, to the DDR3 RAM used in the Banana Pi.

The Banana Pi makes use of the Mali-400 MP2 graphics processor (GPU), as opposed to the Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU used in the Raspberry Pi. Which one is a better GPU is under constant debate, and under different tests, they perform very differently – the Mali-400 beats the Broadcom chip significantly in the GTKperf test [2]; however, in other tests, the Broadcom unit performs better (as is often the case with CPU and GPU benchmarking tests). In any case, both boards have very good dual core graphics processors.

Perhaps the most important factor in the graphics debate is the VPU (visual processor unit), especially if you are intending on running a media center with one of these devices. The hardware acceleration available in the Banana Pi is next to non-existent, and there is no XBMC support. According to a recent thread on the XBMC forum, XBMC support for the Allwinner A20 is unlikely [3] due to poor support from Allwinner and the fact that the A20 is now quite old (approximately 2 years).

You can forget about using XBMC for playback of any 1080p video, and because the Raspbmc and OpenELEC distros are both built on XBMC, you won"t be able to use them with Banana Pi. Video players that can run without GPU or VPU support will likely still work fine, but they too will almost certainly not be capable of 1080p playback (or anything close to it).

According to several sources, the Banana Pi GPU currently isn"t supported for Raspbian either, so the LXDE graphical desktop environment is running entirely on the CPU, which is a bit disappointing. If you are not intending to undertake any graphics intensive activities like 3D rendering or high definition video playback, these limitations probably won"t matter too much to you; however, it is worth noting that, certainly for the time being, hardware-accelerated graphics are not going to happen unless you put in a significant amount of work.

The Banana Pi offers all the same connectors you are familiar with on the Raspberry Pi: HDMI, Ethernet, 2 x USB, microUSB power in, RCA video, 3.5mm audio jack, and both camera (CSI) and display (DSI) ports. The Banana Pi also accepts a full-size SD card in the slot on the bottom, which is in the same place as on the Raspberry Pi, but it uses what looks like a slightly sturdier metal port – which would likely suffer less accidental breakages than the one on the Raspberry Pi.

Some of these ports are actually in different locations or upgraded on the Banana Pi – the Ethernet is a Gigabit Ethernet port, the CSI and DSI connectors have been swapped in location and are physically larger and are of a different pitch (size/spacing of pins), and the microUSB power port has been moved onto the same side as the HDMI connector. The Banana Pi also adds a microUSB OTG (on the go) port (where the microUSB power is on the Raspberry Pi), SATA power (the small white connector between the two microUSB ports), and a SATA data port (the big black one next to HDMI port).

Other additional items present on the Banana Pi are an onboard microphone (between the RCA video and 3.5mm audio jack), an IR receiver (next to the USB ports), a hard power-off button and a reset button (both on the same edge as the USB OTG port), and a third user-programmable button (behind the Ethernet port). Bizarrely, the Banana Pi has a large amount of unused space on top of the board with only power (red) and Ethernet status (blue) LEDs, so you have no easy way to monitor CPU activity. The Ethernet port also has its own LEDs built into the connector, so you can see network activity. Additionally, you have a user-programmable (green) LED.

After you boot the Banana Pi (you can find instructions for SD card creation below), you"ll quickly notice the CPU improvements – the system boots up faster, programs load faster, and intensive tasks use less CPU power. Browsing the Internet also is noticeably faster, thanks to the faster processor and the upgraded Ethernet capability. Once I had booted up into Raspbian on the Banana Pi, I ran an update:

On my Raspberry Pis, these commands usually send the CPU usage straight up to 100 percent; on the Banana Pi, the update process uses an average of about 20 percent with a peak of about 50 percent for a few seconds. You"ll find a more methodical test of the CPU and GPU online [1]. The test shows that, when running a dual threaded test on the Banana Pi using sysbench, the Allwinner A20 CPU is approximately 4 times faster than the BCM2835 CPU in the Raspberry Pi – this is hardly surprising as it is comparing an old, single-core ARMv6 processor with a newer, dual core, ARM Cortex-A7 CPU. Bizarrely, in that same study, the Raspberry Pi beat the Banana Pi in a single-threaded test, but this could be an anomalous result and might differ using a different CPU benchmarking method.

Banana Pi is not as fast as an up-to-date desktop computer, but it would certainly make a more acceptable computer for day-to-day usage than a Raspberry Pi – but in that arena, you may be better off just purchasing a cheap Allwinner A20 (or other CPU) based phone or tablet, or something like the Cubox-i from Solidrun [4].

The Banana Pi board appears to have been developed by an organization in China called LeMaker [5]. The group currently uses space provided by Shenzhen University in Shenzhen, China. The boards appear to be manufactured by the Shenzhen company SinoVoip [6].

Precise details on the design, manufacture, and corporate sponsorship are difficult to find. It doesn"t inspire a lot of confidence that the Banana Pi websites are a bit slow and have a number of dead links. Additionally, English is not the first language of the team behind the Banana Pi, so some of the information on the websites is written in slightly broken English that is sometimes difficult to understand.

Purchasing the Banana Pi was an equally frustrating experience, although in the time since I purchased one, a number of simpler ordering options have surfaced. See the sidebar titled "Buy a Banana Pi" for a list of some available outlets.

I purchased direct from Sinovoip by emailing them through the Alibaba.com electronics store, because the other methods of purchasing did not exist at the time, and I paid by PayPal. The transaction was quite painless and the device arrived fairly quickly, considering it came by standard post from China. One of the Banana Pi websites claims that the "target price" for the Banana Pi is US$ 29.99, but my source charged nearly twice that price.