The central theses
- Raspberry Pi Pico 2 offers more power and features for only $5, keeping it affordable for SBC users.
- The new model features improved Arm cores, security features and enhanced interface capabilities.
- The second iteration takes user feedback into account, improving performance and complexity while remaining budget-friendly.
We’ve seen plenty of competitors try to dethrone Raspberry Pi, such as the mighty Particle Tachyon 5G. But every time I get excited about the innovations of Pi competitors (Pi-vals?), I always lose track of what Raspberry Pi shines at best – its sheer affordability. And it’s only when the company releases a brand new Raspberry Pi Pico that rivals the price of a latte that I’m reminded of how important an incredibly low price can be in the world of SBCs.
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The Raspberry Pi Pico 2 is now here
Image credit: Raspberry Pi
As announced on the Raspberry Pi News website, the company is now taking orders for the Raspberry Pi Pico 2. In the news post, the company states that they are very happy with how the first Raspberry Pi Pico turned out alongside the RP2040. However, there were things that didn’t make it into the final product and users of the Pi had some issues that they shared in their feedback.
Now the company is back with the second iteration, powered by the RP2350. The company lists how much more complex this model is than the RP2040:
- Two 150 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 cores with floating point and DSP support
- 520 KB on-chip SRAM in ten simultaneously accessible banks
- A comprehensive security architecture based on Arm TrustZone for Cortex-M, including:
- Signed boot support
- 8 KB on-chip antifuse one-time programmable memory (OTP)
- SHA-256 acceleration
- A hardware random number generator (TRNG)
- An on-chip switching power supply and a low quiescent current LDO
- Twelve updated PIO state machines
- A new HSTX peripheral for high-speed data transfer
- Support for external QSPI PSRAM
And the best part? You can get your own Raspberry Pi Pico 2 for just $5, so it’s the perfect way to start building your own devices without spending too much money. And if you need some inspiration, check out this cool Halloween portrait powered by a Pico.
Raspberry Pi 3B
With a higher core clock frequency, twice the memory, more powerful Arm cores, optional RISC-V cores, new security features, and improved interface capabilities, Raspberry Pi Pico 2 offers a significant performance boost while maintaining compatibility with previous members of the Raspberry Pi Pico series.
