We posted a two part article recently about IoT development boards. One of the parts talked about the benefits of developing on the series of Raspberry Pi boards. An article we uncovered recently describes how and why the Pi Foundation has jammed a full-functioning computer onto a $50 board designed for IoT applications. The article shares the discussion with Pi founder Eben Upton about the changes made to the design. Some of the new design elements include more serial interfaces, Bluetooth 5 support, and more processing power for Industrial IoT apps.The article provides interesting insight into just how popular the new Raspberry Pi could be for entry level IoT application designs.
You can still use the Raspberry Pi for any of your Maker projects or DIY robots, but the Raspberry Pi Foundation wants you to start thinking of the single-board computer less as a cost-effective computing solution and more as an actual PC.
The latest version of the Pi, the Raspberry Pi 4 boasts a host of impressive specs, from a more powerful processor, to the ability to handle dual 4K displays. And while the Pi 4 isn’t ready to replace your high-end enterprise workstation, it does offer a level of performance that could make it an attractive option for embedded engineers looking to develop consumer-grade IoT products.
Among its specs the Raspberry Pi 4 carries: a Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC running at 1.5GHz; options for 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB of LPDDR4-2400 SDRAM; built-in Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0; Gigabit Ethernet support; two USB 3.0 ports, and two micro-HDMI support capable of supporting up to 4K video at 60 frames per second on a single monitor (30 fps for dual monitors) thanks to a new VideoCore VI GPU.
