The new Raspberry Pi 3 B+ is here
You wanted it, now it’s here! The brand new Raspberry Pi 3 B+ continues the success story of the popular single-board computers and has a few new surprises too.
Yesterday was Pi Day (3.14 if you’re not in the UK), and with it came a new Raspberry Pi.
This is big news as, despite selling over 14 million of its low-cost DIY computing boards, the Raspberry Pi Foundation follows a slow release cycle.
Raspberry Pi 3 B+
The company typically waits over a year to refresh its range and, even then, improvements can be very subtle. That’s exactly the case with its flagship board, the Raspberry Pi 3, which has been upgraded to offer more speed in every sense of the word.
Everything is faster
The first thing that stands out about the new model is the increased CPU performance to a clock of 1.4 GHz (to compare, the 3B model is 1.2 GHz).
This development shows the capability of these mini-computers for more creative and varied use – and the increase in demands from the community.
Connectivity
New connectivity features are also available. In addition to the WiFi standards b/g/n already integrated in the predecessor, the new model also has WiFi ac. This enables particularly fast transmission, which is useful for data transmissions in real-time, for example.
The Raspberry Pi 3 B+ supports transmission of 10,100 and 1,000 Mbit,. That puts it in the same league as Gigabit LAN development boards, transferring up to 300 Mbit per second via USB 2.0.
Power supply via Ethernet
More project and design possibilities have opened up thanks to the new Shield, as the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ is now POE (Power of Ethernet) capable.
This means that the board is powered by the LAN cable, so you can save the power supply and power cable.
Key upgrades at a glance
- Cortex-A53 CPU with 4 cores, 1.4 GHz and 64-bit 1024 MB DDR2 memory
- 40 pins, 26 GPIO
- 4x USB 2.0
- Audio and HDMI socket
- LAN RJ45 10/100/1000 (up to 300 Mbit)
- WLAN 802.11 b/g/n/ac (2.4 + 5.0 GHz)
- Bluetooth 4.2
Price and availability
You can buy the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ now for £29.13 or €36,90 here.
Check here for suppliers.
