Raspitoday

UPDATE 1: New Model A+ details emerge: “I’ll be working on [the Model A+] and it will be compatible with the 40 GPIOs as you see them on the Model B+.”

UPDATE 2:: The Raspberry Pi Model A+ is out now!

In a new interview with RasPi.Today, Raspberry Pi Model B+ designer, James Adams, revealed some new details about the Raspberry PI Model A+.

It seems it will feature 40 GPIO pins and the same power chain changes as the Model B+, but that’s likely where the similarities will end.

“The power savings from an A to the A+ won’t be quite as pronounced as it was from the B to the B+, though, because of the USB thing, which is irrelevant to the A+. Obviously we want to keep the components the same as far as we can, but the power will be less of a win for the A+,” says Adams.

What’s more, though, is it’s likely the A+ will retain the big yellow composite connector and seperate audio jack. Learn more about the making of the Model B+ and the forthcoming A+ in our new feature.

Original Story:
“There will be an A+. In the sense that the Raspberry Pi Model A is derived from the Model B, there will be an A+ derived from the B+,” said Eben Upton, as part of RasPi.Today‘s exclusive interview with the Foundation founder just prior to the Model B+’s announcement.

But what will it be like? “I think you can guess,” teases Upton. “If you look at the differences between an A and a B, you’ll derive the difference between the A+ and the B+.”

While the actual detail about the specification will likely be kept secret until its announcement, we can quite easily infer that it will feature two USB ports, 40 GPIO pins and omit the Ethernet port. This is similar to how android casino games works on android devices using android casino apps.

But when can we expect it? Eben explained that there are still some Raspberry Pi Model A’s in stock: “Once that [stock] has burned down, rather than making more A’s we’re more likely to look at making Model A+’s in a few months instead – before the end of the year.”

So there you have it. With all the power consumption improvements in the Model B+ we can expect the Model A+ to provide incredible power efficiency making it a brilliant choice for Raspberry Pi robots, camera module projects and much more.

We’ll bring you more details as we get them, but you can listen to Eben’s full interview on the Raspberry Pi Today Podcast right now.

During a podcast interview with RasPi.Today, Raspberry Pi Foundation founder Eben Upton revealed that they plan to release a higher performance Raspberry Pi in 2017.

“There will come a time where we want to do a higher performance Raspberry Pi, but I think we’re still some distance away from that yet,” says Upton. “I think that’s some way down our list of things to do. We’ve talked about 2017 as a time that we could do a higher performance Pi, and I think that’s probably still about the right time.”

In the mean time Eben Upton and the team at the Raspberry Pi Foundation will be focussing on the software side of the Raspberry Pi, as well as the forthcoming Raspberry Pi touchscreen display. “There’s plenty of life in Raspberry Pi 1 and there’s still plenty of low-hanging fruit on the software side. We’re still finding system level components that we can optimise that deliver really meaningful amounts of performance uplift for the user,” Upton explained.

“One things that’s exciting is that we’re expecting (in some point in the next year) to be able to start shipping a much more open and less ‘blob-centric’ software stack for the Raspberry Pi… It will improve the chance of doing things like 3D graphics on the Raspberry Pi desktop. It will affect our gradual migration towards a Wayland desktop environment, which we’ve already done a lot of work on.”

Other exciting developments include the Web browser, a fully-featured HTML5 browser capable of playing HD YouTube videos among other things. It’s currently in beta and the browser is being actively developed and new versions are being released weekly.

“We’d like to get [the Web browser] into the stock Raspbian install in the next two or three months,” continued Upton. “…you play with it and see that there’s not a big difference anymore between the Pi and a usual desktop computer. It can do all the various HTML5 multimedia things and – even on pretty JavaScript heavy websites – it feels pretty punchy. I’m really impressed with how it has come out. It’s going to be a big deal for users.”

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has full instructions on how to test the Web browser beta linked from their homepage.

Just make sure you’re using a spare SD card for testing purposes – they can’t guarantee it wont crash your system.

You can buy a Raspberry Pi Model A+ right now. It costs around $20/£15, it’s just 56mm long, 12mm thick and uses up to 45% less power than a Model B+…

Since several of you have asked, we’ve just weighed an A+ – it’s 23g.

— Raspberry Pi (@Raspberry_Pi) November 10, 2014

Model A+ Specs:

Dimensions: 65x56x12mm
Memory: 256MB RAM
Expansion: Micro SD slot,
1x USB, 40x GPIO
Networking: None
Price: ~$20/£15
Weight:

The freshly updated version of the Model A does much more than simply bring it in line with the Raspberry Pi Model B+ released in the summer.

The Raspberry Pi Model A+ is the same dimensions as a HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) add-on board, the same price as two cinema tickets and can run at nearly half the power consumption as the Model B+.

The 3.5mm audio & composite jack means the Model A+ is considerably slimmer than the Model A

According to Eben Upton, Founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the new $20 price of the A+ is really pushing the envelope of what’s possible:

“It’s bumping up against the limits of how much you can build a significantly high-tech product for and not have people lose money in the process. We still think most people are still going to buy B+s, but it gives people a way to come and join in for the cost of 4 Starbucks coffees.”

Since it uses the same improved power chain as the Model B+, the Model A+ consumes much less power than any other Raspberry Pi. According to its designer, James Adams, running the same ‘hello_teapot’ demo with a USB keyboard and a HDMI monitor connected the Model B+ consumes 370mA, while the A+ consumes just 200mA – 45% less power under the same conditions.

You can read my exclusive interview with Eben Upton about the Raspberry Pi Model A+ now, or read it in print from the 20th November.

You can also learn more about the Model A+ from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.