Raspberry Pi Foundation Launches Raspberry Pi 5

[Fouquin]

It has been over four years since the release of the Raspberry Pi 4, and in that time a lot has changed in the maker board and single-board computer landscape. For the Raspberry Pi Foundation there were struggles with worldwide demand and production capacity brought on by the global pandemic starting in 2020, and plenty of new competitors came to the scene to offer ready to order alternatives to the venerable RPi 4. Today however the production woes have been assuaged and a new generation of Raspberry Pi is here; the Raspberry Pi 5.

Raspberry Pi 5 is being announced in advance of availability unlike every prior RPi device launch. Pre-orders are open with many of the listed Approved Resellers on RPi's website starting today but unit shipments aren't expected until near the end of October 2023. As part of this pre-order scheme, RPi Foundation is withholding pre-orders from bulk customers and will be dealing in single-unit sales for individuals until at least the end of the year, as well as running some promotions with The MagPi and HackSpace magazines to give priority access to their subscribers. Genuinely nice to see, considering how hard it was to obtain a Pi 4 for the average Joe over the last couple years. The two announced prices for the RPi 5 are $60 USD for the 4 GB variant, and $80 USD for the 8 GB variant; or about $5 USD more than current reseller pricing on comparable configurations of the Raspberry Pi 4.




The Raspberry Pi 5 incorporates entirely new silicon with improvements made to nearly every aspect of the board. Below, Raspberry Pi Foundation provides a list of key features that paint the broad strokes of all the changes made to the RPi 5:

• Broadcom BCM2712 2.4 GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU (512 KB per-core L2, 2 MB shared L3)
• VideoCore VII GPU, supporting OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.2
• Dual 4Kp60 HDMI display output
• 4Kp60 HEVC decoder
• LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM
• Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 5.0 / Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
• High-speed microSD card interface with SDR104 mode support
• 2 × USB 3.0 ports, supporting simultaneous 5 Gbps operation
• 2 × USB 2.0 ports
• Gigabit Ethernet, with PoE+ support (requires separate PoE+ HAT, coming soon)
• 2 × 4-lane MIPI camera/display transceivers
• PCIe 2.0 x1 interface for fast peripherals
• Raspberry Pi standard 40-pin GPIO header
• Real-time clock (RTC)
• Power button

With a new board comes a new case. The RPi 5 has an updated three-piece plastic case with active cooling which allows for installing the RPi 5 with an SD card installed, stacking multiple cases with the top plate removed, and allows for mounting HATs on top of the case above the fan via GPIO header extenstions and strategically placed holes though the case shell. This new case will cost $10 USD. While the RPi Foundation clarifies that no cooling is required for the RPi 5 to operate, there is a new $5 USD active cooler which mounts to the RPi 5 via the added through-hole cooler mounts. This cooler includes a radial blower fan which is claimed to be chosen for low-noise operation, with the added note that the cooler is "somewhat superior [to the case], making it particularly suitable for overclockers."



The Raspberry Pi 5 hosts many hardware changes and even some compatibility breaking new interfaces; however, the RPi Foundation has headed off the possible issues this may cause for users with a slew of new I/O accessories to address these changes. First, due to the new high density "mini" MIPI connectors RPi 5 is launching with multiple lengths of adapters to allow the use of existing "standard" MIPI devices. These adapter ribbon cables come in 200 mm, 300 mm, and 500 mm lengths and cost $1, $2, and $3 USD respectively. Alongside these are a new POE+ HAT adapter launching in 2024 that supports the relocated PoE header.



A rather exciting change comes from the addition of PCI Express 2.0 on the Rasberry Pi 5, and the expansion options for "fast peripherals" this opens up. To take advantage of this, a pair of mechanical HAT adapters for M.2 devices and accessories will be launching in 2024. These allow for the use of standard 2230 and 2242 devices such as NVMe SSDs, third party WWAN, WLAN, and BLE adapters. Presumably M.2 breakout adapters could also work, such as those that split to USB or SATA, but we'll have to wait for the adapters to test. The first of the two adapters (like the prototype pictured below) supports so-called "larger devices" while the second adapter will follow the L-shape configuration of the PoE+ HAT and allow for M.2 devices to fit within the plastic case accessory.



With increased performance sometimes comes (slightly) increased power draw, and Raspberry Pi 5 can pull as much as 50% more power than the Raspberry Pi 4 in demanding tasks. Because of this, and because of enthusiasts that will want to overclock, a new $12 USD 27 W USB-C power adapter will be made available. RPi Foundation is quick to point out that the RPi 5 does not need this increased power to function, and the 15 W power adapter will still work. However, with the 15 W power adapter the RPi 5 will limit downstream USB current to 600 mA maximum to ensure that it has ample headroom for very demanding tasks that might have the board pulling its maximum power rating. This USB current limit can still be disabled by the user when using the 15 W power adapter, and RPi Foundation says, "Raspberry Pi 5 functions perfectly well with typical configurations of higher-power USB devices, and all but the most pathological workloads."



Finally with the inclusion of a real-time clock in the Raspberry Pi 5, an RTC battery will be made available for a $5 USD surcharge. Frankly I feel like this should come with the standard kit, but at least it's available as a first-party accessory. (Though wiring up your own with some spare wire, a 2-wire JST plug, 3 V coin-cell, and some heat-shrink isn't out of the question.)



If reading all that wasn't on your agenda today, you're in luck. Raspberry Pi Foundation's Eben Upton hosted an excellent short video overview of the new Raspberry Pi 5 just for you. Further blog posts talking about the Raspberry Pi 5 will be posted and linked to on the Raspberry Pi 5 main page in the coming weeks.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[mashie]

Quite a few upgrades in this version.

I'm sure it will be popular even with the higher cost of entry.

 

[Prima.Vera]

How does this CPU compares to the latest mobile ones from the phones, I wonder.
Are the A17, Snapdragon 8, Exynos, Mali, etc, better than this?

 

[Concealed Sentinel]

Orange Pi 5B is another good alternative to Raspberry Pi 5:

Spoiler: Official site link

http://www.orangepi.org/html/hardWare/computerAndMicrocontrollers/details/Orange-Pi-5B.html

 

[Denver]

How does this CPU compares to the latest mobile ones from the phones, I wonder.
Are the A17, Snapdragon 8, Exynos, Mali, etc, better than this?

SD 8 Gen 2 should have 3-4x greater performance in ST

At the same time the A76 is up to 3x faster than the A72 in its predecessor

 

[TheLostSwede]

How does this CPU compares to the latest mobile ones from the phones, I wonder.
Are the A17, Snapdragon 8, Exynos, Mali, etc, better than this?

It should be on a similar level as the Snapdragon 855 and 855 Plus, minus the efficiency cores that one has. Faster than say the Snapdragon 730, as it only has two Cortex-A76 based cores.
Also similar to the MTK Kompanio 820, but again only for the high performance cores.
Graphics side will be a lot worse.
Mali is an Arm GPU design which is now quite old and not use in any modern chips, but I guess the GPU will compare to something like that.
Broadcom doesn't share performance specs of the Videocore GPU.

VideoCore - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I honestly do not understand some of the design choices made. Why not use USB PD for power, instead they have a proprietary 5V/5A power requirement, which is just plain insane.
Why do PCIe over a ribbon cable like this? It's going to be really hard to attach to the carrier board due to the odd placement (by the camera input).
The board shown above, is apparently not the final design, but it appears as if they were going to use the MIPI display output connector for PCIe, which would've been a smidgen better.
The fact the new chip requires active cooling to operate at full speed is just sad.
I can sort of understand the re-use of the same WiFi module, but at the same time it's quite old by now and could've been replaced by something better as literally no extra cost.
I also really loathe this form factor, it's awful for so many reasons, least not cooling now.
C'mon RPi foundation, start using pico ITX already, it's a well established industry standard.

Edit: I was wrong about the placement of the PCIe connector, but it's still a weird design choice.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

These will be even harder to get than the first, and be certain they will be on ebay at quite higher prices. Think i might pre order one at £80

 

[TheLostSwede]

These will be even harder to get than the first, and be certain they will be on ebay at quite higher prices. Think i might pre order one at £80

Why would they bey harder to get?
The issue with the RPi 4 was due to component shortage related issues.
Now they have a custom PMIC that they can control, so they shouldn't have any major issues, unless the fab can't produce enough chips for them.

 

[bug]

It should be on a similar level as the Snapdragon 855 and 855 Plus, minus the efficiency cores that one has. Faster than say the Snapdragon 730, as it only has two Cortex-A76 based cores.
Also similar to the MTK Kompanio 820, but again only for the high performance cores.
Graphics side will be a lot worse.
Mali is an Arm GPU design which is now quite old and not use in any modern chips, but I guess the GPU will compare to something like that.
Broadcom doesn't share performance specs of the Videocore GPU.

VideoCore - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I honestly do not understand some of the design choices made. Why not use USB PD for power, instead they have a proprietary 5V/5A power requirement, which is just plain insane.
Why do PCIe over a ribbon cable like this? It's going to be really hard to attach to the carrier board due to the odd placement (by the camera input).
The board shown above, is apparently not the final design, but it appears as if they were going to use the MIPI display output connector for PCIe, which would've been a smidgen better.
The fact the new chip requires active cooling to operate at full speed is just sad.
I can sort of understand the re-use of the same WiFi module, but at the same time it's quite old by now and could've been replaced by something better as literally no extra cost.
I also really loathe this form factor, it's awful for so many reasons, least not cooling now.
C'mon RPi foundation, start using pico ITX already, it's a well established industry standard.

My beef is something that started as an affordable, $25 toy for people to play with, will set you back a cool $100 today (and that's just of you buy the really required add-ons, not all of them). Sure, this is way more capable than the original, but it would still be cool if they kept an affordable variant around.

 

[Frick]

It should be on a similar level as the Snapdragon 855
I also really loathe this form factor, it's awful for so many reasons, least not cooling now.
C'mon RPi foundation, start using pico ITX already, it's a well established industry standard.

At this point Rpi is also very well established, but yeah. The first few generations I think the extra small size served them well, but with all the added stuff (and active cooling!) yeah. I wish they would keep making something like the Rpi3, or even 2b and sell dirt cheap.

Why would they bey harder to get?
The issue with the RPi 4 was due to component shortage related issues.
Now they have a custom PMIC that they can control, so they shouldn't have any major issues, unless the fab can't produce enough chips for them.

I'm just going to assume they'll be hard to get no matter how much is produced because they are so very handy.

 

[Denver]

I would like to see an x86 competitor in the SBC market under $100, the last one I remember was the Atomic Pi it cost only $35-50 but an old atom isn't better than a Quad-core arm, not even in terms of consumption nor in performance. The only strong point is the wide compatibility.

I suspect a dual-core with SMT based on Zen2 or above + 3-4CU would already be superior to the pi5's SOC in pretty much anything.

 

[bug]

I would like to see an x86 competitor in the SBC market under $100, the last one I remember was the Atomic Pi it cost only $35-50 but an old atom isn't better than a Quad-core arm, not even in terms of consumption nor in performance. The only strong point is the wide compatibility.

I suspect a dual-core with SMT based on Zen2 or above + 3-4CU would already be superior to the pi5's SOC in pretty much anything.

What would be advantage if the SoC was x86 based?

 

[Denver]

What would be advantage if the SoC was x86 based?

Broad compatibility with everything out of the box. It would also be a good way to show how x86 can be more efficient than arm.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

If we're going to see active cooling and higher price tags, then I'd love to see them go all out. Let's see a Snapdragon 8 gen 2 powered mini board!

 

[Denver]

If we're going to see active cooling and higher price tags, then I'd love to see them go all out. Let's see a Snapdragon 8 gen 2 powered mini board!

Nah, This Soc costs almost the equivalent of an x86 mini PC with N305 or equivalent, an SBC based on SD8G2 would cost more than $300 and in fact I've seen mini PCs based on Ryzen 5 hexa-core for that price, more than enough to run over Snapdragon.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Why would they bey harder to get?
The issue with the RPi 4 was due to component shortage related issues.
Now they have a custom PMIC that they can control, so they shouldn't have any major issues, unless the fab can't produce enough chips for them.

Didn't the pi4 sell like hot cakes?

I have a really nice class D amp hat for my pi4 B hopefully will work on the 5. I use mine as a emulator station, which will be nice on the 5 with a small nvme ssd.

 

[jayjr1105]

If you don't need GPIO the cost of used mini PC's has rendered the pi pretty much useless for general computing.

 

[TheLostSwede]

My beef is something that started as an affordable, $25 toy for people to play with, will set you back a cool $100 today (and that's just of you buy the really required add-ons, not all of them). Sure, this is way more capable than the original, but it would still be cool if they kept an affordable variant around.

You can thank the "community" for that, as they just wanted more and more features, which keeps adding cost.

Phoronix has some benchmarks up. Tested against the RK3588S which has four Cortex-A76 and four Cortex-A55.

Raspberry Pi 5 Benchmarks: Significantly Better Performance, Improved I/O Review - Phoronix

www.phoronix.com

 

[bug]

Broad compatibility with everything out of the box. It would also be a good way to show how x86 can be more efficient than arm.

Broad compatibility with what? Open source code compiles to arm just as well as it compiles to x86. And I'm guessing you don't want to play games on these, do you?

You can thank the "community" for that, as they just wanted more and more features, which keeps adding cost.

Thank you "community"!

 

[Frick]

Broad compatibility with everything out of the box. It would also be a good way to show how x86 can be more efficient than arm.

I'd say all that baggage is pointless in this form factor, unless you have some extremey specific use case. Plus if you're using Rpi for the performance you're probably doing it wrong, their true usefulness is because of the low power draw, small size and the GPIO.

 

[Readlight]

5W computer

 

[TheLostSwede]

Broad compatibility with what? Open source code compiles to arm just as well as it compiles to x86. And I'm guessing you don't want to play games on these, do you?

As in, most shit just works? So many Arm based chips that needs so much work still and even simple things like getting Gigabit networking to the same level on all Arm based boards is apparently a no go. Some boards only deliver ~800 Mbps or below due to poorly implemented and optimised drivers, when they should be delivering ~940 Mbps plus.

Having been involved in developing a few products based around Arm chips, it's really a lot of software side work that needs to be done and all of those devices have been headless, so it doesn't even take into account how hard it is to have fully working graphics on Arm platforms. Even the proprietary drivers are rarely released fully to the public and obviously can't be part of Linux due to it being open sauce.

Thank you "community"!

I can understand some of the requests, but it all adds cost.
Maybe we'll see a Pi 5 lite?

5W computer

5V at 5A is more like 25 W computer.

I'd say all that baggage is pointless in this form factor, unless you have some extremey specific use case. Plus if you're using Rpi for the performance you're probably doing it wrong, their true usefulness is because of the low power draw, small size and the GPIO.

See above. We're way past that now, as the RPi 5 is none of what you're describing.

 

[jayjr1105]

I would imagine idle and light usage it would stay well under 10w. Just because the power brick is 5v5a doesn't mean it will use that all the time.

 

[Readlight]

Why not use AA batteries

 

[bug]

As in, most shit just works? So many Arm based chips that needs so much work still and even simple things like getting Gigabit networking to the same level on all Arm based boards is apparently a no go. Some boards only deliver ~800 Mbps or below due to poorly implemented and optimised drivers, when they should be delivering ~940 Mbps plus.

Having been involved in developing a few products based around Arm chips, it's really a lot of software side work that needs to be done and all of those devices have been headless, so it doesn't even take into account how hard it is to have fully working graphics on Arm platforms. Even the proprietary drivers are rarely released fully to the public and obviously can't be part of Linux due to it being open sauce.

You're describing getting the platform up to par. I would assume this part is taken care of by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
After this step, I would expect running pretty much everything would be business as usual.

I would imagine idle and light usage it would stay well under 10w. Just because the power brick is 5v5a doesn't mean it will use that all the time.

Look up the benchmarks over at Phoronix. There can be like 30% performance difference with the cooler on. So yes, something is drawing all that juice.