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A birthday gift: 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 now only $35
In two days' time, it will be our eighth birthday (or our second, depending on your point of view). Many of you set your alarms and got up early on the morning of 29 February 2012, to order your Raspberry Pi from our newly minted licensee partners, RS Components and Premier Farnell. In the years since, we've sold over 30 million Raspberry Pi computers; we've seen our products used in an incredible range of applications all over the world (and occasionally off it); and we've found our own place in a community of makers, hobbyists, engineers and educators who are changing the world, one project, or one student, at a time.
[...] Which brings us to today's announcement. The fall in RAM prices over the last year has allowed us to cut the price of the 2GB variant of Raspberry Pi 4 to $35. Effective immediately, you will be able to buy a no-compromises desktop PC for the same price as Raspberry Pi 1 in 2012. [...] And of course, thanks to inflation, $35 in 2012 is equivalent to nearly $40 today. So effectively you're getting all these improvements, and a $5 price cut.
[...] In line with our commitment to long-term support, the 1GB product will remain available to industrial and commercial customers, at a list price of $35. As there is no price advantage over the 2GB product, we expect most users to opt for the larger-memory variant. [...] The 4GB variant of Raspberry Pi 4 will remain on sale, priced at $55.
In addition to falling RAM prices (which will hopefully continue to fall in the future), there is likely an oversupply of the 2 GB model as the 4 GB model proved to be the most popular.
Also at TechCrunch, Tom's Hardware, PCWorld, and Hackaday.
The USB Type-C resistor issue has been fixed by the latest revision of the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B hardware, which is confirmed to be out in the wild. The issue prevented some USB-C power supplies from working with Pi4B:
The Pi Foundation noticed the issue soon after the release of the Raspberry Pi 4, with founder Eben Upton informing The Register in July that the resistor fix would be bundled into a new hardware revision. Following up on the matter earlier this month, The Register was then told by Upton that he expected the revision "to have reached end users by now". The updated SBC also includes the following changes:
- WLCSP SD card voltage switch has been to the top side of the board to minimise the risk of damage.
- Silkscreen tweaks to reduce solder bridging in manufacture.
The new revision remains the same price as the original Raspberry Pi 4. The Pi Foundation is not selling the new revision as a distinct SKU, either. Hence, you may struggle to tell the difference between the two revisions unless you know what you are looking for.
To confirm that you have a new one, run "cat /proc/cpuinfo" and look for revision "c03112".
Multiple revisions of the firmware have lowered power draw, which is now much closer to RPi3B+. As a result, temperatures should be several degrees cooler.
Also at Tom's Hardware and Hackaday.
Previously: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Launched
Too Hot to Handle? Raspberry Pi 4 Fans Left Wondering If Kit Should Come With a Heatsink
Raspberry Pi 4B CPU Overclocked to 2.147 GHz, GPU at 750 MHz
Interview with Eben Upton on Studies, the Raspberry Pi and IoT
Raspberry Pi Foundation Begins Working on Vulkan Driver
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @03:50AM (1 child)
I think I recall hearing that the SOC in the pi 4 is the last gen of the Broadcom SOCs. So, a Pi 5 will have to be something completely different. That certainly does open up the possibilities. A Rockchip powered official pi?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday February 28 2020, @09:33AM
I don't think so. There is a tight relationship between RPF and Broadcom. They've indicated somewhere that the VideoCore VI graphics could stay the same in the next version.
Raspberry Pi Foundation did join the RISC-V Foundation [soylentnews.org], but it seems implausible that they would switch from ARM to RISC-V cores anytime soon, and Broadcom could easily provide those.
What they need to do is get Broadcom to license 3DSoC or contract with Skywater Technology Foundry to create 3D chips within the next 5 years. Because the first SBC to use that will steamroll the competition. A massacre.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]