The Raspberry Pi 5 is launching in October, offering a substantial upgrade in performance albeit with a slightly higher price point.
Unlike previous models aimed at hobbyists and teachers, the upcoming Pi 5 is a potent machine with a 64-bit quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 processor at 2.4GHz and an 800MHz VideoCore VII GPU for smoother graphics. This single-board computer also features doubled storage performance via the SDR104 high-speed mode and includes a real-time clock, although users must supply their own battery for uninterrupted use.
The Raspberry Pi 5 is the first to feature in-house silicon. With the four-pole composite video and analogue audio jack gone, composite video functionality is now handled by the RP1. It’s an I/O controller that comes with two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 interfaces, a Gigabit Ethernet controller, two four-lane MIPI transceivers for camera and display connections, and other interfaces. The Pi 5 will run on a new version of Raspberry Pi OS, which will be released mid-October.
Before the Pi 5, the Raspberry Pi Foundation released the Pi 4 Model B in 2019, which was touted as having a “PC-like level of performance for most users.” Variants followed in subsequent years. In 2022, the foundation introduced the Raspberry Pi Pico W, a budget-friendly option tailored for physical computing, akin to an Arduino, departing from the general-purpose approach of the other Pi models.
The Raspberry Pi 5 is arriving in late October, priced at $60 (approx. Php3,400) for the 4GB variant and $80 (~Php4,550) for 8GB. Users will also need to spend for a new case due to changes in the positions of the ports. The Pi 5 can handle typical tasks without active cooling, but the computer will require one when overclocking. Initially, 100,000 units will be available, with more coming later. Production aims for one million units by the end of January.