Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi (/paɪ/) is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom. The original Raspberry Pi computer was developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. Since 2012, all Raspberry Pi products have been developed by Raspberry Pi Ltd, which began as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Foundation. In June 2024 Raspberry Pi created a new holding company, Raspberry Pi Holdings, which began trading as a public company on the London Stock Exchange in June 2024.
The Raspberry Pi device attracted attention because they were fully fledged computers, but were small — some as small as a credit card — and inexpensive — with some of them costing as little as $35 as of 2024. As a result Raspberry Pis were used in a variety of ways, ranging from components used to power machines such as smart speakers and robots, to being connected to bigger devices, such as desktop screens. The first model sold well beyond its original target market of education, ending up in robotics, home automation, industrial automation and used by hobbyists. The devices crop up in uses from high-tech farming systems to self-pouring beer taps. At the time of the public listing in 2024, the company said more than 60 million Raspberry Pi devices had been sold.
Originally, the Raspberry Pi project was created with the promotion of teaching basic computer science in schools in mind, leading to low cost, modularity, open design, and its adoption of the HDMI and USB standards.
Later models have much more memory (RAM), up to 16 GB while the original was much more limited in memory (512 MB or 256 MB, with the former capacity still sold), and also more limited in other areas such as having no wireless networking.
The Raspberry Pi became the best-selling British computer in 2015, when it surpassed the ZX Spectrum in unit sales.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation was created as a private company limited by guarantee in 2008, and was registered as a charity in 2009 by people at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory who had noticed a decline in the number and skills of young people applying for computer science courses.
In 2012, after the release of the second board type, the Raspberry Pi Foundation set up a new entity responsible for developing their computers, named Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd, and installed Eben Upton (one of the 2008 group) as CEO. The Foundation was rededicated as an educational charity for promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools and developing countries.
In 2021, Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd changed its name to Raspberry Pi Ltd. Its newly-formed parent company, Raspberry Pi Holdings, became a public company in June 2024, launching on the London Stock Exchange where it trades with the stock symbol RPI.
Most Raspberry Pis are made in a Sony factory in Pencoed, Wales, while others are made in China and Japan.
There are three series of Raspberry Pi, and several generations of each have been released. Raspberry Pi SBCs feature a Broadcom system on a chip (SoC) with an integrated ARM-compatible central processing unit (CPU) and on-chip graphics processing unit (GPU), while Raspberry Pi Pico has a RP2040 system on chip with an integrated ARM-compatible central processing unit (CPU).
The Raspberry Pi hardware has evolved through several versions that feature variations in the type of the central processing unit, amount of memory capacity, networking support, and peripheral-device support.
This block diagram describes models B, B+, A and A+. The Pi Zero models are similar, but lack the Ethernet and USB hub components. The Ethernet adapter is internally connected to an additional USB port. The boards have one to five USB ports. In Model A, A+, and the Pi Zero, the USB port is connected directly to the system on a chip (SoC). On the Pi 1 Model B+ and later models the USB/Ethernet chip contains a five-port USB hub, of which four ports are available, while the Pi 1 Model B only provides two. On the Pi Zero, the USB port is also connected directly to the SoC, but it uses a micro USB (OTG) port. Unlike all other Pi models, the 40 pin GPIO connector is omitted on the Pi Zero, with solderable through-holes only in the pin locations. The Pi Zero WH remedies this.
Processor speed ranges from 700 MHz to 2.4 GHz for the Pi 5; on-board memory ranges from 256 MB to 16 GB random-access memory (RAM), with only the Raspberry Pi 4 and the Raspberry Pi 5 having more than 1 GB.
Secure Digital (SD) cards in MicroSDHC form factor (SDHC on early models) are used to store the operating system and program memory, however some models also come with onboard eMMC storage and the Raspberry Pi 4 and newer can also make use of USB-attached SSD storage for its operating system. Raspberry Pi 5 supports booting from NVMe SSDs attached directly to the PCIe bus with an appropriate adapter or HAT.
For video output, HDMI is supported on all versions, and composite video is supported on Raspberry Pi 4 and earlier, with a standard 3.5 mm tip-ring-sleeve jack carrying mono audio together with composite video.
Lower-level output is provided by a number of GPIO pins, which support common protocols like I²C.
The B-models have an 8P8C Ethernet port and the Pi 3 and newer, and Pi Zero W series have on-board Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
The Broadcom BCM2835 SoC used in the first generation Raspberry Pi includes a RISC-based 700 MHz 32-bit ARM1176JZF-S processor, VideoCore IV graphics processing unit (GPU), and RAM. It has a level 1 (L1) cache of 16 KB and a level 2 (L2) cache of 128 KB. The level 2 cache is used primarily by the GPU. The SoC is stacked underneath the RAM chip, so only its edge is visible. The ARM1176JZ(F)-S is the same CPU used in the original iPhone, although at a higher clock rate, and mated with a much faster GPU.
The earlier V1.1 model of the Raspberry Pi 2 used a Broadcom BCM2836 SoC with a 900 MHz 32-bit, quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor, with 256 KB shared L2 cache. The Raspberry Pi 2 V1.2 was upgraded to a Broadcom BCM2837 SoC with a 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, the same one which is used on the Raspberry Pi 3, but underclocked (by default) to the same 900 MHz CPU clock speed as the V1.1. The BCM2836 SoC is no longer in production as of late 2016.
The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B uses a Broadcom BCM2837 SoC with a 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, with 512 KB shared L2 cache. The Model A+ and B+ are 1.4 GHz
The Raspberry Pi 4 uses a Broadcom BCM2711 SoC with a 1.5 GHz (later models: 1.8 GHz) 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 processor, with 1 MB shared L2 cache. Unlike previous models, which all used a custom interrupt controller poorly suited for virtualisation, the interrupt controller on this SoC is compatible with the ARM Generic Interrupt Controller (GIC) architecture 2.0, providing hardware support for interrupt distribution when using ARM virtualisation capabilities. The VideoCore IV of the previous models has also been replaced with a VideoCore VI running at 500 MHz.
The Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W use the same Broadcom BCM2835 SoC as the first generation Raspberry Pi, although now running at 1 GHz CPU clock speed.
The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W uses the RP3A0-AU, which is a System-in-Package (SiP) design. The package contains a Broadcom BCM2710A1 processor, which is a 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 clocked at 1 GHz, along with 512 MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM layered above. The Raspberry Pi 3 also uses the BCM2710A1 in its Broadcom BCM2837 SoC, but clocked at a higher 1.2 GHz.
The Raspberry Pi Pico uses the RP2040, a microcontroller containing dual ARM Cortex-M0+ cores running at 133 MHz, 6 banks of SRAM totalling 264 KB, and programmable IO for peripherals.
The Raspberry Pi 5 uses the Broadcom BCM2712 SoC, which is a chip designed in collaboration with Raspberry Pi. The SoC features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A76 processor clocked at 2.4 GHz, alongside a VideoCore VII GPU clocked at 800 MHz. The BCM2712 SoC also features support for cryptographic extensions for the first time on a Raspberry Pi model. Alongside the new processor and graphics unit, the monolithic design of the earlier BCM2711 has been replaced with a CPU and chipset (southbridge) architecture, as the IO functionality has been moved to the Raspberry Pi 5's custom RP1 chip.
While operating at 700 MHz by default, the first generation Raspberry Pi provided a real-world performance roughly equivalent to 0.041 GFLOPS. On the CPU level the performance is similar to a 300 MHz Pentium II of 1997–99. The GPU provides 1 Gpixel/s or 1.5 Gtexel/s of graphics processing or 24 GFLOPS of general purpose computing performance. The graphical capabilities of the Raspberry Pi are roughly equivalent to the performance of the Xbox of 2001.
Raspberry Pi 2 V1.1 included a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU running at 900 MHz and 1 GB RAM. It was described as 4–6 times more powerful than its predecessor. The GPU was identical to the original. In parallelised benchmarks, the Raspberry Pi 2 V1.1 could be up to 14 times faster than a Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+.
The Raspberry Pi 3, with a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, is described as having ten times the performance of a Raspberry Pi 1. Benchmarks showed the Raspberry Pi 3 to be approximately 80% faster than the Raspberry Pi 2 in parallelised tasks.
The Raspberry Pi 4, with a quad-core Cortex-A72 processor, is described as having three times the performance of a Raspberry Pi 3.
Most Raspberry Pi systems-on-chip can be overclocked to various degrees utilising the built in config.txt file in the boot sector of the Raspberry Pi OS. Overclocking is generally safe and does not automatically void the warranty of the Raspberry Pi; however, setting the "force_turbo" option to 1 bypasses voltage and temperature limits and voids the users warranty. In Raspberry Pi OS the overclocking options on boot can also be made by a software command running "sudo raspi-config" on Raspberry Pi 1, 2, and original 3B without voiding the warranty. In those cases the Pi automatically shuts the overclocking down if the chip temperature reaches 85 °C (185 °F); an appropriately sized heat sink is needed to protect the chip from thermal throttling.
Newer versions of the firmware contain the option to choose between five overclock ("turbo") presets that, when used, attempt to maximise the performance of the SoC without impairing the lifetime of the board. This is done by monitoring the core temperature of the chip and the CPU load, and dynamically adjusting clock speeds and the core voltage. When the demand is low on the CPU or it is running too hot, the performance is throttled, but if the CPU has much to do and the chip's temperature is acceptable, performance is temporarily increased with CPU clock speeds of up to 1.1 GHz, depending on the board version and on which of the turbo settings is used.
The overclocking modes are:
In the highest (turbo) mode the SDRAM clock speed was originally 500 MHz, but this was later changed to 600 MHz because of occasional SD card corruption. Simultaneously, in high mode the core clock speed was lowered from 450 to 250 MHz, and in medium mode from 333 to 250 MHz.
The CPU of the first and second generation Raspberry Pi board did not require cooling with a heat sink or fan, even when overclocked, but the Raspberry Pi 3 may generate more heat when overclocked.
The early designs of the Raspberry Pi Model A and B boards included 256 MB of random-access memory (RAM). Of this, the early beta Model B boards allocated 128 MB to the GPU by default, leaving only 128 MB for the CPU. On the early 256 MB releases of models A and B, three different splits were possible. The default split was 192 MB for the CPU, which should be sufficient for standalone 1080p video decoding, or for simple 3D processing. 224 MB was for Linux processing only, with only a 1080p framebuffer, and was likely to fail for any video or 3D. 128 MB was for heavy 3D processing, possibly also with video decoding. In comparison, the Nokia 701 uses 128 MB for the Broadcom VideoCore IV.
The later Model B with 512 MB RAM, was released on 15 October 2012 and was initially released with new standard memory split files (arm256_start.elf, arm384_start.elf, arm496_start.elf) with 256 MB, 384 MB, and 496 MB CPU RAM, and with 256 MB, 128 MB, and 16 MB video RAM, respectively. But about one week later, the foundation released a new version of start.elf that could read a new entry in config.txt (gpu_mem=xx) and could dynamically assign an amount of RAM (from 16 to 256 MB in 8 MB steps) to the GPU, obsoleting the older method of splitting memory, and a single start.elf worked the same for 256 MB and 512 MB Raspberry Pis.
The Raspberry Pi 2 has 1 GB of RAM.
The Raspberry Pi 3 has 1 GB of RAM in the B and B+ models, and 512 MB of RAM in the A+ model. The Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W have 512 MB of RAM.
The Raspberry Pi 4 is available with 1, 2, 4 or 8 GB of RAM. A 1 GB model was originally available at launch in June 2019 but was discontinued in March 2020, and the 8 GB model was introduced in May 2020. The 1 GB model returned in October 2021.
The Raspberry Pi 5 is available with 2, 4, 8 or 16 GB of RAM.
The Model A, A+ and Pi Zero have no Ethernet circuitry and are commonly connected to a network using an external user-supplied USB Ethernet or Wi-Fi adapter. On the Model B and B+ the Ethernet port is provided by a built-in USB Ethernet adapter using the SMSC LAN9514 chip. The Raspberry Pi 3 and Pi Zero W (wireless) are equipped with 2.4 GHz WiFi 802.11n (150 Mbit/s) and Bluetooth 4.1 (24 Mbit/s) based on the Broadcom BCM43438 FullMAC chip with no official support for monitor mode (though it was implemented through unofficial firmware patching) and the Pi 3 also has a 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet port. The Raspberry Pi 3B+ features dual-band IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, and Gigabit Ethernet (limited to approximately 300 Mbit/s by the USB 2.0 bus between it and the SoC). The Raspberry Pi 4 has full gigabit Ethernet (throughput is not limited as it is not funnelled via the USB chip.)
The RPi Zero, RPi1A, RPi3A+ and RPi4 can be used as a USB device or "USB gadget", plugged into another computer via a USB port on another machine. It can be configured in multiple ways, such as functioning as a serial or Ethernet device. Although originally requiring software patches, this was added into the mainline Raspbian distribution in May 2016.
Raspberry Pi models with a newer chipset can boot from USB mass storage, such as from a flash drive. Booting from USB mass storage is not available in the original Raspberry Pi models, the Raspberry Pi Zero, the Raspberry Pi Pico, the Raspberry Pi 2 A models, and the Raspberry Pi 2 B models with versions lower than 1.2.
Although often pre-configured to operate as a headless computer, the Raspberry Pi may also optionally be operated with any generic USB computer keyboard and mouse. It may also be used with USB storage, USB to MIDI converters, and virtually any other device/component with USB capabilities, depending on the installed device drivers in the underlying operating system (many of which are included by default).
Other peripherals can be attached through the various pins and connectors on the surface of the Raspberry Pi.
The video controller can generate standard modern TV resolutions, such as HD and Full HD, and higher or lower monitor resolutions as well as older NTSC or PAL standard CRT TV resolutions. As shipped (i.e., without custom overclocking) it can support the following resolutions: 640×350 EGA; 640×480 VGA; 800×600 SVGA; 1024×768 XGA; 1280×720 720p HDTV; 1280×768 WXGA variant; 1280×800 WXGA variant; 1280×1024 SXGA; 1366×768 WXGA variant; 1400×1050 SXGA+; 1600×1200 UXGA; 1680×1050 WXGA+; 1920×1080 1080p HDTV; 1920×1200 WUXGA.
Higher resolutions, up to 2048×1152, may work or even 3840×2160 at 15 Hz (too low a frame rate for convincing video). Allowing the highest resolutions does not imply that the GPU can decode video formats at these resolutions; in fact, the Raspberry Pis are known to not work reliably for H.265 (at those high resolutions), commonly used for very high resolutions (however, most common formats up to Full HD do work).
Although the Raspberry Pi 3 does not have H.265 decoding hardware, the CPU is more powerful than its predecessors, potentially fast enough to allow the decoding of H.265-encoded videos in software. The GPU in the Raspberry Pi 3 runs at higher clock frequencies of 300 MHz or 400 MHz, compared to previous versions which ran at 250 MHz.
The Raspberry Pis can also generate 576i and 480i composite video signals, as used on old-style (CRT) TV screens and less-expensive monitors through standard connectors – either RCA or 3.5 mm phono connector depending on model. The television signal standards supported are PAL-B/G/H/I/D, PAL-M, PAL-N, NTSC and NTSC-J.
When booting, the time defaults to being set over the network using the Network Time Protocol (NTP). The source of time information can be another computer on the local network that does have a real-time clock, or to a NTP server on the internet. If no network connection is available, the time may be set manually or configured to assume that no time passed during the shutdown. In the latter case, the time is monotonic (files saved later in time always have later timestamps) but may be considerably earlier than the actual time. For systems that require a built-in real-time clock, a number of small, low-cost add-on boards with real-time clocks are available. The Raspberry Pi 5 is the first to include a real-time clock. If an external battery is not plugged in, the Pi 5 will use the Network Time Protocol, or will need to be set manually, as was the case in previous models.
The RP2040 microcontroller has a built-in real-time clock, but it can not be set without some form of user entry or network facility being added.
Raspberry Pi 1 Models A+ and B+, Pi 2 Model B, Pi 3 Models A+, B and B+, Pi 4, and Pi Zero, Zero W, Zero WH and Zero W 2 have the same 40-pin pinout (designated J8 across all models). Raspberry Pi 1 Models A and B have only the first 26 pins. The J8 header is commonly referred to as the GPIO connector as a whole, even though only a subset of the pins are GPIO pins. In the Pi Zero and Zero W, the 40 GPIO pins are unpopulated, having the through-holes exposed for soldering instead. The Zero WH (Wireless + Header) has the header pins preinstalled.
Model B rev. 2 also has a pad (called P5 on the board and P6 on the schematics) of 8 pins offering access to an additional 4 GPIO connections. These GPIO pins were freed when the four board version identification links present in revision 1.0 were removed.
Models A and B provide GPIO access to the ACT status LED using GPIO 16. Models A+ and B+ provide GPIO access to the ACT status LED using GPIO 47, and the power status LED using GPIO 35.
Raspberry Pi provides Raspberry Pi OS (formerly called Raspbian), a Debian-based Linux distribution for download, as well as third-party Ubuntu, Windows 10 IoT Core, RISC OS, LibreELEC (specialised media centre distribution) and specialised distributions for the Kodi media centre and classroom management. It promotes Python and Scratch as the main programming languages, with support for many other languages. The default firmware is closed source, while unofficial open source firmware is available. Many other operating systems can also run on the Raspberry Pi. The formally verified microkernel seL4 is also supported. There are several ways of installing multiple operating systems on one mSD card.
Raspberry Pi can use a VideoCore IV GPU via a binary blob, which is loaded into the GPU at boot time from the SD-card, and additional software, that initially was closed source. This part of the driver code was later released. However, much of the actual driver work is done using the closed source GPU code. Application software makes calls to closed source run-time libraries (OpenMAX IL, OpenGL ES or OpenVG), which in turn call an open source driver inside the Linux kernel, which then calls the closed source VideoCore IV GPU driver code. The API of the kernel driver is specific for these closed libraries. Video applications use OpenMAX IL, 3D applications use OpenGL ES and 2D applications use OpenVG, which both in turn use EGL. OpenMAX IL and EGL use the open source kernel driver in turn.
Raspberry Pi first announced it was working on a Vulkan driver in February 2020. A working Vulkan driver running Quake 3 at 100 frames per second on a 3B+ was revealed by a graphics engineer who had been working on it as a hobby project on 20 June. On 24 November 2020 Raspberry Pi announced that their driver for the Raspberry Pi 4 is Vulkan 1.0 conformant. Raspberry Pi Trading announced further driver conformance for Vulkan 1.1 and 1.2 on 26 October 2021 and 1 August 2022.
The official firmware is a freely redistributable binary blob, that is proprietary software. A minimal proof-of-concept open source firmware is also available, mainly aimed at initialising and starting the ARM cores as well as performing minimal startup that is required on the ARM side. It is also capable of booting a very minimal Linux kernel, with patches to remove the dependency on the mailbox interface being responsive. It is known to work on Raspberry Pi 1, 2 and 3, as well as some variants of Raspberry Pi Zero.
In February 2015, a switched-mode power supply chip, designated U16, of the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B version 1.1 (the initially released version) was found to be vulnerable to flashes of light, particularly the light from xenon camera flashes and green and red laser pointers. The U16 chip has WL-CSP packaging, which exposes the bare silicon die. The Raspberry Pi Foundation blog recommended covering U16 with opaque material (such as Sugru or Blu-Tak) or putting the Raspberry Pi 2 in a case. This issue was not discovered before the release of the Raspberry Pi 2 because it is not standard or common practice to test susceptibility to optical interference, while commercial electronic devices are routinely subjected to tests of susceptibility to radio interference.
Technology writer Glyn Moody described the project in May 2011 as a "potential BBC Micro 2.0", not by replacing PC compatible machines but by supplementing them. In March 2012 Stephen Pritchard echoed the BBC Micro successor sentiment in ITPRO. Alex Hope, co-author of the Next Gen report, is hopeful that the computer will engage children with the excitement of programming. Co-author Ian Livingstone suggested that the BBC could be involved in building support for the device, possibly branding it as the BBC Nano. The Centre for Computing History strongly supports the Raspberry Pi project, feeling that it could "usher in a new era". Before release, the board was showcased by ARM's CEO Warren East at an event in Cambridge outlining Google's ideas to improve UK science and technology education.
Harry Fairhead, however, suggests that more emphasis should be put on improving the educational software available on existing hardware, using tools such as Google App Inventor to return programming to schools, rather than adding new hardware choices. Simon Rockman, writing in a ZDNet blog, was of the opinion that teens will have "better things to do", despite what happened in the 1980s.
In October 2012, the Raspberry Pi won T3's Innovation of the Year award, and futurist Mark Pesce cited a (borrowed) Raspberry Pi as the inspiration for his ambient device project MooresCloud. In October 2012, the British Computer Society responded to the announcement of enhanced specifications by stating, "it's definitely something we'll want to sink our teeth into."
In June 2017, Raspberry Pi won the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award. The citation for the award to the Raspberry Pi said it was "for its inexpensive credit card-sized microcomputers, which are redefining how people engage with computing, inspiring students to learn coding and computer science and providing innovative control solutions for industry."
Clusters of hundreds of Raspberry Pis have been used for testing programs destined for supercomputers.
The Raspberry Pi community was described by Jamie Ayre of FOSS software company AdaCore as one of the most exciting parts of the project. Community blogger Russell Davis said that the community strength allows the Foundation to concentrate on documentation and teaching. The community developed a fanzine around the platform called The MagPi which in 2015, was handed over to Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd by its volunteers to be continued in-house. A series of community Raspberry Jam events have been held across the UK and around the world.
As of January 2012, enquiries about the board in the United Kingdom have been received from schools in both the state and private sectors, with around five times as much interest from the latter. It is hoped that businesses will sponsor purchases for less advantaged schools. The CEO of Premier Farnell said that the government of a country in the Middle East has expressed interest in providing a board to every schoolgirl, to enhance her employment prospects.
In 2014, the Raspberry Pi Foundation hired a number of its community members including ex-teachers and software developers to launch a set of free learning resources for its website. The Foundation also started a teacher training course called Picademy with the aim of helping teachers prepare for teaching the new computing curriculum using the Raspberry Pi in the classroom.
In 2018, NASA launched the JPL Open Source Rover Project, which is a scaled down version of Curiosity rover and uses a Raspberry Pi as the control module, to encourage students and hobbyists to get involved in mechanical, software, electronics, and robotics engineering.
There are a number of developers and applications that are using the Raspberry Pi for home automation. These programmers are making an effort to modify the Raspberry Pi into a cost-affordable solution in energy monitoring and power consumption. Because of the relatively low cost of the Raspberry Pi, this has become a popular and economical alternative to the more expensive commercial solutions.
In June 2014, Polish industrial automation manufacturer TECHBASE released ModBerry, an industrial computer based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module. The device has a number of interfaces, most notably RS-485/232 serial ports, digital and analogue inputs/outputs, CAN and economical 1-Wire buses, all of which are widely used in the automation industry. The design allows the use of the Compute Module in harsh industrial environments, leading to the conclusion that the Raspberry Pi is no longer limited to home and science projects, but can be widely used as an Industrial IoT solution and achieve goals of Industry 4.0.
In March 2018, SUSE announced commercial support for SUSE Linux Enterprise on the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B to support a number of undisclosed customers implementing industrial monitoring with the Raspberry Pi.
In January 2021, TECHBASE announced a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 cluster for AI accelerator, routing and file server use. The device contains one or more standard Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4s in an industrial DIN rail housing, with some versions containing one or more Coral Edge tensor processing units.
The Organelle is a portable synthesiser, a sampler, a sequencer, and an effects processor designed and assembled by Critter & Guitari. It incorporates a Raspberry Pi computer module running Linux.
OTTO is a digital camera created by Next Thing Co. It incorporates a Raspberry Pi Compute Module. It was successfully crowd-funded in a May 2014 Kickstarter campaign.
Slice is a digital media player which also uses a Compute Module as its heart. It was crowd-funded in an August 2014 Kickstarter campaign. The software running on Slice is based on Kodi.
Numerous commercial thin client computer terminals use the Raspberry Pi.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, demand increased primarily due to the increase in remote work, but also because of the use of many Raspberry Pi Zeros in ventilators for COVID-19 patients in countries such as Colombia, which were used to combat strain on the healthcare system. In March 2020, Raspberry Pi sales reached 640,000 units, the second largest month of sales in the company's history.
A project was launched in December 2014 at an event held by the UK Space Agency. The Astro Pi was an augmented Raspberry Pi that included a sensor hat with a visible light or infrared camera. The Astro Pi competition, called Principia, was officially opened in January and was opened to all primary and secondary school aged children who were residents of the United Kingdom. During his mission, British ESA astronaut Tim Peake deployed the computers on board the International Space Station. He loaded the winning code while in orbit, collected the data generated and then sent this to Earth where it was distributed to the winning teams. Covered themes during the competition included spacecraft sensors, satellite imaging, space measurements, data fusion and space radiation.
The organisations involved in the Astro Pi competition include the UK Space Agency, UKspace, Raspberry Pi, ESERO-UK and ESA.
In 2017, the European Space Agency ran another competition open to all students in the European Union called Proxima. The winning programs were run on the ISS by Thomas Pesquet, a French astronaut. In December 2021, the Dragon 2 spacecraft launched by NASA had a pair of Astro Pi in it.
The computer is inspired by Acorn's BBC Micro of 1981. The Model A, Model B and Model B+ names are references to the original models of the British educational BBC Micro computer, developed by Acorn Computers.
According to Upton, the name "Raspberry Pi" was chosen with "Raspberry" as an ode to a tradition of naming early computer companies after fruit, and "Pi" as a reference to the Python programming language.
In 2006, early concepts of the Raspberry Pi were based on the Atmel ATmega644 microcontroller. Its schematics and PCB layout are publicly available. Foundation trustee Eben Upton assembled a group of teachers, academics and computer enthusiasts to devise a computer to inspire children.
The first ARM prototype version of the computer was mounted in a package the same size as a USB memory stick. It had a USB port on one end and an HDMI port on the other.
The Foundation's goal was to offer two versions, priced at US$25 and $35. They started accepting orders for the higher priced Model B on 29 February 2012, the lower cost Model A on 4 February 2013. and the even lower cost (US$20) A+ on 10 November 2014. On 26 November 2015, the cheapest Raspberry Pi yet, the Raspberry Pi Zero, was launched at US$5 or £4.
According to Raspberry Pi, more than 5 million Raspberry Pis were sold by February 2015, making it the best-selling British computer. By November 2016 they had sold 11 million units, and 12.5 million by March 2017, making it the third best-selling "general purpose computer". In July 2017, sales reached nearly 15 million, climbing to 19 million in March 2018. By December 2019, a total of 30 million devices had been sold.
The global chip shortage starting in 2020, as well as an uptake in demand starting in early 2021, notably affected the Raspberry Pi, causing significant availability issues from that time onward. The company explained its approach to the shortages in 2021, and April 2022, explaining that it was prioritising business and industrial customers.