The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W Arrives Six Years After The First Pi Zero

 The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, a $15 64-bit quad-core follow-up to the Raspberry Pi Zero W, is the cheapest member of the Raspberry Pi computer family.

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, which was released by British computer company Raspberry Pi, has a 1GHz CPU that, according to the manufacturer, provides 5x the performance for multithread applications as the Raspberry Pi Zero from 2015.

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W Arrives Six Years After The First Pi Zero

The quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A53 CPU on the 65mm x 30mm board is rated at 1GHz. A Raspberry Pi RP3A0 system-in-package (SiP) with a Broadcom BCM2710A1 SoC (the same as the Raspberry Pi 3, although slightly clocked down) and 512MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM lies at its core.

In addition to a considerable increase in multi-threading speed, Raspberry Pi claims that the improved CPU in the Zero 2 W boosts single-thread execution performance by 40%.

When it first came out six years ago, the super-cheap and super-hackable Raspberry Pi Zero soon became one of Raspberry Pi's best-selling gadgets, thanks to its flexibility and low price – just $5 at the time.

Eben Upton, Raspberry Pi's co-founder, is a big fan of it. In a blog post unveiling the new gadget, Upton stated, "Of all the devices we've introduced, Raspberry Pi Zero is still the one I'm most proud of: it most completely represents our purpose to provide people access to tools, and to eliminate cost as a barrier."

Zero and its $10 wireless-enabled big brother Zero W have sold over four million devices, and they've found their way into everything from smart speakers to medical ventilators.

The Raspberry Pi Pico, a microcontroller board built on Raspberry Pi's own RP2040 silicon that was released in the start of 2021, is the cheapest gadget in the Raspberry Pi family. At the opposite end of the spectrum are devices like the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and Raspberry Pi 400, which are intended to be more cheap alternatives to typical desktop computers.

Due to the Covid epidemic and the resulting demand for working and studying from home, the firm witnessed a significant increase in sales in 2020, making its relatively inexpensive and consumer-friendly gadgets even more enticing.

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W supports both wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, similar to the 2018 Raspberry Pi Zero W, which added wireless connectivity (thus the 'W') to the original Zero board from 2015 (hence the 'W'). This comes in the form of Bluetooth 4.2 and 2.4GHz 801.11b/g/n wireless LAN. Bluetooth Low Energy is also supported (BLE)

There's a MicroSD card slot, CSI-1 camera connector, USB on-the-go (OTG) port, and 40-pin GPIO header for physical communication. A mini-HDMI connector is used for video output. The Zero 2 W may be used as a drop-in replacement for the original Pi Zero and Zero W due to its identical size and connection, which means it will fit inside most current Raspberry Pi Zero cases.

However, the observant may detect some weight differences: to compensate for the Zero 2 W's greater performance, Raspberry Pi has had to add additional heat-conducting copper to keep the device cool while running. "You can certainly feel the difference in weight if you hold a Zero W and a Zero 2 W in your hands," Upton remarked.

Raspberry Pi has also released a new official USB power supply to go along with the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. It resembles the Raspberry Pi 4 PSU's original power supply unit, however instead of a USB-C connector, it has a USB micro-B connector.

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W specifications:

  • Broadcom BCM2710A1, quad-core 64-bit SoC (Arm Cortex-A53 @ 1GHz)
  • 512MB LPDDR2 SDRAM
  • 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.2, BLE
  • 1 × USB 2.0 interface with OTG
  • HAT-compatible 40 pin I/O header footprint
  • MicroSD card slot
  • Mini HDMI port
  • Composite video and reset pin solder points
  • CSI-2 camera connector
  • H.264, MPEG-4 decode (1080p30); H.264 encode (1080p30)
  • OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0 graphics

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