If you’re a fan of the barebones Raspberry Pi computer then the latest announcement from its creators is going to be of interest to you. They have unveiled the “final evolution of the original Raspberry Pi” today. Bear in mind that it doesn’t carry the Raspberry Pi 2 moniker instead it’s merely a revised version of the current Model B. The team has often talked about doing more than one hardware revision to incorporate small improvements that people ask for and with the Model B+ its doing just that.
Available immediately, the Raspberry Pi Model B+ still comes at the same $35 price. It also uses the same BCM2835 application processor as the Model B as well as the same 512MB of RAM.
Some key improvements have been made which will enhance performance. While retaining same pinout for the first 26 pins as its predecessor the Model B+’s GPIO header has grown to 40 pins. As compared to 2 USB 2.0 ports on the Model B the revised version has 4 USB 2.0 ports.
They’ve removed the old friction-fit SD card socket and replaced it with a push-push micro-SD card socket. Power consumption has been reduced by between 0.5W and 1W. A dedicated low-noise power supply provides better audio. The Raspberry Pi Model B+ has an overall neater form factor as they’ve aligned the USB connectors with the board edge, added four squarely placed mounting holes and moved composite video onto the 3.5mm jack.
Production of the Model B will continue side by side, while the Model B+ is now available from two of their main manufacturing partners here.
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