Raspberry Pi 3 Now Available At $35

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The brand new Raspberry Pi 3 is now available for only $35. The new units are now powered by a 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor and comes with built in 802.11n wireless and Bluetooth 4.1. Thanks to everyone that sent this one in.


For Raspberry Pi 3, Broadcom have supported us with a new SoC, BCM2837. This retains the same basic architecture as its predecessors BCM2835 and BCM2836, so all those projects and tutorials which rely on the precise details of the Raspberry Pi hardware will continue to work. The 900MHz 32-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU complex has been replaced by a custom-hardened 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53. Combining a 33% increase in clock speed with various architectural enhancements, this provides a 50-60% increase in performance in 32-bit mode versus Raspberry Pi 2, or roughly a factor of ten over the original Raspberry Pi.
 
shit...

shit, shit, shit, shit

I still have 5 Pi 2's that are unused and I already want to buy these, not because I need the extra CPU (and possibly GPU) but because ...
 
Im hoping with the embedded wifi I can finally complete my Rpi TOR WIFI Bridge project as with the Rpi2 I couldnt figure out how to set the routing tables to pass traffic between USB wifi dongles.

Failing that I can chain my Rpi2 to a new Rpi3 via ethernet (I can get my ethernet to wifi routing tables to work but not wifi to wifi).
 
I have been holding out for a few months hoping for a Rp3 to play around with. Now if I had more free time..
 
I'm looking into making Table Top Arcade machines with the 2 player setup, neon, stereo speakers, arcade graphics, etc. I just recently sourced the 140ish GB Hyperspin archive. I want to use this new Raspberry Pi 3 as the emulation hardware.
 
Hopefully that big bump in power makes the Pi3 the perfect fifth-generation-class emulator. The Pi2 struggled with N64 games, and PSX was touch-and-go. Hopefully We can nail pretty much ALL sub-2000 consoles with this device now.

Edit: also, can't wait to see if we can take that little SoC to 2.0GHz!!!
 
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KazeoHin said:
Hopefully that big bump in power makes the Pi3 the perfect fifth-generation-class emulator. The Pi2 struggled with N64 games, and PSX was touch-and-go. Hopefully We can nail pretty much ALL sub-2000 consoles with this device now.

Edit: also, can't wait to see if we can take that little SoC to 2.0GHz!!!
Click to expand...

That would be nice.

I have my Wii setup for NES and SNES. I still have a N64 system as one of my systems I just want to keep around.

I just like using the real console hardware to play most console games. It just isn't quite the same when you are using an emulator.
 
SixFootDuo said:
I'm looking into making Table Top Arcade machines with the 2 player setup, neon, stereo speakers, arcade graphics, etc. I just recently sourced the 140ish GB Hyperspin archive. I want to use this new Raspberry Pi 3 as the emulation hardware.
Click to expand...

If you don't mind me asking where are you sourcing the hyperspin kit. I have looked at several different vendors/vids on youtube and have no idea on who to choose for my gaming pc project.
 
Well that figures. I purchased a new Pi2 not too long ago. Well, for the money might as well get a 3 to join the collection.
 
Rav3n said:
The current Ars Technica article states it has h265 support.... and the CPU is bumped to 1.2ghz, supporting 60 fps @ 1080p vs 30fps @ 1080p on the Pi2
Click to expand...
I think Ars got that wrong, or at least didn't present it correctly. The GPU doesn't have h.265 decoding. It's done in software, like h.264 1080p60 decoding. The GPU only supports 1080p30 with h.264:
VideoCore IV BCM2835 Overview · hermanhermitage/videocoreiv Wiki · GitHub

Video Encoder / Decoder
  • 1080p30 Full HD HP H.264 Video Encode/Decode
  • The GPU can hardware decode H264, MPEG1/2/4, VC1, AVS, MJPG at 1080p30.
Click to expand...

Despite it being a Cortex A53 based SOC, it uses a 2014-era GPU (VideoCore IV), so h.265 hardware support isn't really expected.
 
The Qikipedia page is stating the VideoCore IV chip in the Pi3 should be able to go up to 900Mhz... HMMM...
 
KazeoHin said:
Hopefully that big bump in power makes the Pi3 the perfect fifth-generation-class emulator. The Pi2 struggled with N64 games, and PSX was touch-and-go. Hopefully We can nail pretty much ALL sub-2000 consoles with this device now.
Click to expand...

It may depend on the GPU at this point... which is unchanged. My Sony Xperia Play can emulate PSX flawlessly and it's a single core 1Ghz Snapdragon SOC.
 
rat said:
It may depend on the GPU at this point... which is unchanged. My Sony Xperia Play can emulate PSX flawlessly and it's a single core 1Ghz Snapdragon SOC.
Click to expand...

I'm no expert on emulation, but aren't pretty much ALL gen5 consoles purely software bound, meaning they calculate everything, 3D, sound, code in a single serial thread all on the CPU? I could be wrong.
 
I keep wanting to get a Pi, but keep holding out until the video decoding gets better (since my main reason for one would be as a video streamer on the main TV).

OH well, here's to hoping Pi4 comes out next year with more GPU (decoding) muscle.
 
It was years between the first two generations. Seems like RP2 just came out less than a year ago.

I had a first gen one and used it for a python web server. It worked well for what it was used for but if you loaded a GUI desktop on it, it was slow slow slow.

Per core the RP2 was twice as fast. I'd love to see benchmarks on this one.
 
Staples said:
It was years between the first two generations. Seems like RP2 just came out less than a year ago.

I had a first gen one and used it for a python web server. It worked well for what it was used for but if you loaded a GUI desktop on it, it was slow slow slow.

Per core the RP2 was twice as fast. I'd love to see benchmarks on this one.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm seeing a LOT of potential to turn one into an actual GUI desktop for browsing, media, shopping, etc: set one up with a 1080P TV in every room!
 
pxc said:
I think Ars got that wrong, or at least didn't present it correctly. The GPU doesn't have h.265 decoding. It's done in software, like h.264 1080p60 decoding. The GPU only supports 1080p30 with h.264:
VideoCore IV BCM2835 Overview · hermanhermitage/videocoreiv Wiki · GitHub



Despite it being a Cortex A53 based SOC, it uses a 2014-era GPU (VideoCore IV), so h.265 hardware support isn't really expected.
Click to expand...
Thank you for clearing that up. I suspected the same, although I did not have time to look it up
 
Trimlock said:
shit...

shit, shit, shit, shit

I still have 5 Pi 2's that are unused and I already want to buy these, not because I need the extra CPU (and possibly GPU) but because ...
Click to expand...

Heheh... Luckily I'm only in 3 deep thus far... just need moooore time to play with them dammit! At this rate, they may as well offer a subscribe and buy service and just automatically send the latest and greatest every time a new release hits. Ya, I'm down for this model as well... will figure out how I'll put it to use later.
 
With a little WiFi IC built-in, do you think these would work as a nice little hotspot/AP?
 
KazeoHin said:
With a little WiFi IC built-in, do you think these would work as a nice little hotspot/AP?
Click to expand...

WiFi relay yes, that
Supercharged_Z06 said:
Heheh... Luckily I'm only in 3 deep thus far... just need moooore time to play with them dammit! At this rate, they may as well offer a subscribe and buy service and just automatically send the latest and greatest every time a new release hits. Ya, I'm down for this model as well... will figure out how I'll put it to use later.
Click to expand...

I'd be ok with a subscription to Pi's or accessories. :D

KazeoHin said:
With a little WiFi IC built-in, do you think these would work as a nice little hotspot/AP?
Click to expand...

This would work as a WiFi relay spot very well, but you would probably need to upgrade the antenna on this to get any worth while range.

KazeoHin said:
The Qikipedia page is stating the VideoCore IV chip in the Pi3 should be able to go up to 900Mhz... HMMM...
Click to expand...
article said:
Are you still using VideoCore?

Yes. VideoCore IV 3D is the only publicly documented 3D graphics core for ARM-based SoCs, and we want to make Raspberry Pi more open over time, not less. BCM2837 runs most of the VideoCore IV subsystem at 400MHz and the 3D core at 300MHz (versus 250MHz for earlier devices).
Click to expand...

Could you possibly push it to double the rate? Maybe but you'd need cooling (maybe active) to get it there, then you would need to check to see if the power delivery can handle it first. I don't know much about the GPU core on this so I won't make assumptions if you can/can't.
 
I tried a Pi2 as a console emulator,but could never get the sound to work. Also,I wish they had made it directly bootable from a usb stick,SD cards are just too unreliable with too little memory.
 
michael.pa2 said:
I tried a Pi2 as a console emulator,but could never get the sound to work. Also,I wish they had made it directly bootable from a usb stick,SD cards are just too unreliable with too little memory.
Click to expand...


Did you try RecalBox? It's a free full blow emulationstation build. Works like a champ, we built 5 of them and enjoy them thoroughly with our knock off PS3 bluetooth controllers.

Looking forward to the RP3 with built in BT/WLAN. That right there will free me up from using any dongles or USB devices at all. Wondeful.
 
Ordered mine the first day, and am going to make it into a Kodi media server. Already have an Android one, but hopefully this'll be more customizable and user friendly. Also ordered a $5 remote on eBay recommended for the RPi.
 
I was really hoping for 2GB of RAM, though. I have an old 1GHz Celeron laptop running Windows XP with 256MB of RAM serving as a tertiary computer. Unfortunately, it's still more useful than a modern Pi with 1GB. A 64-bit processor with 1GB of RAM... do they even know what 64-bit is for? I guess they don't. It's basically there so we can use more RAM. Otherwise, most stuff would probably still be 32-bit.

The Pi basically has to run a modern version of Linux. While on my old computer, I can get away with Windows XP and still run the latest 32-bit Firefox with one tab open about as fast as I can on the Pi, maybe use Office 2000 as well. But LibreOffice and Firefox will crawl on a Linux system with only 1GB of RAM, even if you use a lightweight WM like JWM or TWM.

2GB is, in my opinion, the bare minimum at which you can comfortably surf the Internet. 1GB pretty much means you have way too much RAM to be running Lynx or Dillo, and not quite enough power to run Firefox or Chrome at reasonable speed. So you find yourself roughing it with the weak browsers until you reach a site that you can't handle with them, and then reluctantly drag out Firefox like a giant bazooka and wait on it to load your toughest websites. It's also barely enough to use LibreOffice.

Admittedly, this is mostly because of code bloat. There's no reason the Internet needs to have so many advertisements and scripts that it fills up 2GB, but that's where we are. There's also no reason that word processors have to be written to take up so much RAM. If they would stick to LessTif and stop wasting resources on theming engines and Cairo, it would probably be fine.

I know the Pi is mostly supposed to be a hobbyist thing, but it's just... so, so close to being able to use it for surfing the web and office tasks that it's frustrating. I mean, sure, I guess while you're doing a project you could just leave your PC on and surf around for instructions on it, but it seems like it would be really nice to be able to just surf the web on the Pi itself in-between projects.
 
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athenian200 said:
I was really hoping for 2GB of RAM, though. I have an old 1GHz Celeron laptop running Windows XP with 256MB of RAM serving as a tertiary computer. Unfortunately, it's still more useful than a modern Pi with 1GB. A 64-bit processor with 1GB of RAM... do they even know what 64-bit is for? I guess they don't. It's basically there so we can use more RAM. Otherwise, most stuff would probably still be 32-bit.
Click to expand...

If you need 2GB of RAM on an ARM device, you should really start looking at ODROID equipment: ODROID | Hardkernel
There are more SBCs out there than just Raspberry Pi's, and if you need more memory on one of them, you can always allocate more of the SD card or SSD/HDD/CF/SD over USB to SWAP.

Also, they are leaving Raspbian in 32-bit until they deem 64-bit is necessary (probably a few generations away), doing so for compatibility.
All modern ARM processors are 64-bit, and that A53 is what they happened to use on the Raspberry Pi 3.

athenian200 said:
2GB is, in my opinion, the bare minimum at which you can comfortably surf the Internet. 1GB pretty much means you have way too much RAM to be running Lynx or Dillo, and not quite enough power to run Firefox or Chrome at reasonable speed. So you find yourself roughing it with the weak browsers until you reach a site that you can't handle with them, and then reluctantly drag out Firefox like a giant bazooka and wait on it to load your toughest websites. It's also barely enough to use LibreOffice.

Admittedly, this is mostly because of code bloat. There's no reason the Internet needs to have so many advertisements and scripts that it fills up 2GB, but that's where we are. There's also no reason that word processors have to be written to take up so much RAM. If they would stick to LessTif and stop wasting resources on theming engines and Cairo, it would probably be fine.
Click to expand...

Um, welcome to 2016?
Also, No Flash, No Script, and AdBlock are your friends. ;)

Your Windows XP system with a weak old Netburst single-core Celeron and only 256MB of RAM is no where near as useful, nor as powerful, as the Raspberry Pi 2 or 3, so I'm calling BS on that statement.
Windows XP struggled like hell on only 256MB after SP1, let alone SP2, not counting any other software, so there is no way a modern web browser will run better on that 15 year old system than a Pi 3.
 
Red Falcon said:
If you need 2GB of RAM on an ARM device, you should really start looking at ODROID equipment: ODROID | Hardkernel
There are more SBCs out there than just Raspberry Pi's, and if you need more memory on one of them, you can always allocate more of the SD card or SSD/HDD/CF/SD over USB to SWAP.

Also, they are leaving Raspbian in 32-bit until they deem 64-bit is necessary (probably a few generations away), doing so for compatibility.
All modern ARM processors are 64-bit, and that A53 is what they happened to use on the Raspberry Pi 3.
Click to expand...

Yeah, if I ever get into ARM, I probably won't go with the Pi. There are better ARM systems to be had, some even have 4GB of RAM. Isn't using an SD card for a hard drive kind of slow with swap, though? I've always been told never to enable swapping if you're running Linux off an SD card because it's slow and it hurts the SD card... or something.


Um, welcome to 2016?
Also, No Flash, No Script, and AdBlock are your friends. ;)
Click to expand...

I already use AdBlock and avoid installing Flash on Firefox. Haven't tried NoScript, though. I'll have to look into that.

Your Windows XP system with a weak old Netburst single-core Celeron and only 256MB of RAM is no where near as useful, nor as powerful, as the Raspberry Pi 2 or 3, so I'm calling BS on that statement.
Windows XP struggled like hell on only 256MB after SP1, let alone SP2, not counting any other software, so there is no way a modern web browser will run better on that 15 year old system than a Pi 3.
Click to expand...

Actually, mine isn't Netburst. It's actually Tualatin, the Pentium III core. If it had been Netburst, the heat would have killed it over the years. No one I know who had a Netburst laptop was able to keep it from dying for more than a few years. It does struggle with Windows XP SP3, but SP2 runs okay. Oh, and I never installed Flash on that machine to start with. I knew better than to try running that on it even back then. LOL.

My argument is mostly that on my old system, running something like an older version of XP (pre-SP3) works just as well as it did back then. Firefox only takes about 20-30 seconds to load a page with a single tab open (which is pretty fast if you consider how old it is). Whereas on my newer laptop with 2GB running Windows 10, it takes about 10 seconds. . But if I use an intermediate device on Windows 7 with 1GB of RAM, it also takes about 20 seconds. All with the same version of Firefox. Doesn't get a lot better if you install a contemporary version of Ubuntu, either. The reason is the general code bloat caused by OS developers assuming people have more RAM.

Internet speed isn't the issue, because they all render instantly on my Desktop machine with 8GB. Even my old 4GB desktop and a Surface Pro with 4GB were able to render pages near instantly. To be fair, I'm mostly comparing the laptop to the original Pi, not the Pi 3. I didn't get another after I tried the first one. I ended up using that one as a print server temporarily until I gave it to someone else that wanted to do a project with it. I was really just hoping the Pi would expand to 2GB eventually, given the cheap RAM prices.

Old PCs have access to a lot of legacy software/hardware that can make them useful, where as low-spec ARM Linux systems don't have that advantage and are only useful if you have a specific embedded application that you're willing to write software for. For instance, that old laptop always comes in handy if I need to run something that only works on Windows XP or earlier. Or access something on a Floppy Disk... it has a port where you can swap out the DVD-ROM for a Floppy Drive. It's also one of the last computers I own that can run an old LPT-port based Dot Matrix printer in-between Inkjet failures every few months (happened a lot before I got my first laser). If it weren't for all that, I probably would have ditched it ages ago.

Sorry I rambled on so much, I guess I've thought about this a lot.
 
athenian200 said:
I was really just hoping the Pi would expand to 2GB eventually, given the cheap RAM prices.
Click to expand...

Ah, that makes much more sense now.
The Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 are WAY more powerful than the original, which just used a single-core 700-1000MHz ARM11 CPU design (not the SoC, just CPU) from circa 2003.

Yes, the original Pi was mostly only useful for a small handful of mainstream applications and many custom embedded projects due to the limited memory and more so the very limited CPU.
However, the Pi 2 can browse the web easily, and I'm sure the Pi 3 is even faster at rendering things.

The 1GB limit isn't quite the same on these as it was on x86 systems, as a lot of the software on Raspbian is written for the lower memory count and won't struggle like a full desktop OS (Windows) on x86.
As for the SWAP, you are correct about the SD card, but if it isn't done often, you should be fine; using a USB HDD/SSD/CF/SD would work much better for SWAP in this case.

athenian200 said:
Old PCs have access to a lot of legacy software/hardware that can make them useful, where as low-spec ARM Linux systems don't have that advantage and are only useful if you have a specific embedded application that you're willing to write software for. For instance, that old laptop always comes in handy if I need to run something that only works on Windows XP or earlier. Or access something on a Floppy Disk... it has a port where you can swap out the DVD-ROM for a Floppy Drive. It's also one of the last computers I own that can run an old LPT-port based Dot Matrix printer in-between Inkjet failures every few months (happened a lot before I got my first laser). If it weren't for all that, I probably would have ditched it ages ago.

Sorry I rambled on so much, I guess I've thought about this a lot.
Click to expand...

Oh, you would be surprised what these little systems are capable of!
Though I do understand using Windows XP and earlier operating systems for compatibility for FDDs and other old equipment; the Raspberry Pi's are convenient, but they are definitely not a one-size-fits-all solution for everything, but then again, a modern x86 system wouldn't be for FDDs or anything else using PCI, ISA, etc., either. :p

haha, nice, I didn't think anyone still used Dot Matrix printers; dat Oki Data! :D

Na, it's fine, I understand, haha.
If you ever have a chance, try the Raspberry Pi 3, I'm sure it won't disappoint, and while I'm at it, you might check out the Pi-Top, Raspberry Pi 2 laptop:

pitop-1.jpg
 
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