Today the Raspberry Pi 4 is released, featuring a new 1.5GHz Arm chip and VideoCore GPU. It brings some brand new additions to the board: dual-HDMI 4K display output; USB3 ports; Gigabit Ethernet; even multiple RAM options up to 4GB. The Raspberry Pi 4 is a very powerful single board computer and starts at the usual price of $35. That price gets you the standard 1GB RAM, or you can pay $45 for the 2GB model or $55 for the 4GB model - premium priced models a first for Raspberry Pi.
The specs at-a-glance:
- 64-bit BCM2711 quad-core A72 CPU @ 1.5GHz
- VideoCore VI GPU
- Gigabit Ethernet port
- 1GB, 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4 RAM
- 2x micro-HDMI ports
- 2x USB3 ports
- 2x USB2 ports
- Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) WiFi
- Bluetooth 5.0
- USB Type C power port
- CSI camera interface
- DSI display interface
- Micro SD card slot
- Power over Ethernet pins
- Full compatibility with all previous Raspberry Pi models
USB and networking
The Raspberry Pi 4 has the benefit of USB3, as it's powered by a USB Type C cable and provides two USB3 ports as well as two USB2 ports. You can now connect USB3 hard drives and other peripherals and make use of faster connectivity.
The BCM2835-based chip used in Raspberry Pi 1 to 3 only provided one native USB port, and no ethernet, so on the board there's always been a USB hub that provides more USB ports and an ethernet port. The 3B+ added a dedicated LAN chip which gave it gigabit ethernet, but this was limited to USB2 speeds. The Pi 4 has truly dedicated gigabit ethernet, and it's not throttled over USB any more, making its networking speeds much faster.
The Pi 4 takes advantage of the technology built into the 3B+ which made the Pi the first single board computer with dual-band WiFi. This means you can connect to both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks.
Displays
When the first Raspberry Pi was launched, the balance of its CPU and GPU performance was tipped heavily in favour of the GPU. The VideoCore IV was a very powerful graphics processor, capable of full-HD 1080p multimedia, which is why the Pi has always been so popular as a home media center. The Pi 2 rebalanced things somewhat, and brought the CPU in line, taking the Pi from a single-core to a quad-core Arm chip. Now the Pi 4 shows both taking a big step forward together. The new VideoCore VI GPU gives the Pi 4K video, and allows for two displays, so the board provides two HDMI ports. To keep the board the same size, they have to be micro-HDMI, so you'll need an adapter or a micro-to-full HDMI cable to use it with an HDMI monitor.
Dual displays are a godsend when you need more screen real estate to keep eye contact with multiple windows - if you're programming you might have your code on one screen and the website or app you're building; your database; your web browser; your emails or anything else on the other. For the first time, development on Raspberry Pi won't be limited to a single monitor. It's also handy if you want to build the Pi into a project, and have different things appear on different screens.
Don't forget the Pi also has a DSI (Display Serial Interface) port which you can drive another special display from - not another monitor as such, but you can connect the official Raspberry Pi touch screen to it via a flex cable.
Raspbian Buster
This product launch happily coincides with a major Debian release, and the fact the new Pi supports OpenGL ES 3 means it made sense for any software work on the Pi 4 to target Raspbian Buster. Buster brings a few user interface tweaks and a whole host of software upgrades, including Python 3.7.
It had previously been indicated that the Raspberry Pi 4 would be another year away, but luckily, the chip design turned out to be ready for production much earlier than anticipated, so here it is!