We first announced Raspberry Pi 5 back in the autumn of 2023, with just two choices of memory density: 4 GB and 8 GB. Last summer, we released the 2 GB variant, aimed at cost-sensitive applications. And today we're launching its bigger sibling, the 16 GB variant, priced at $120.
Why 16 GB, and why now?
We're continually surprised by the uses that people find for our hardware. Many of these fit into 8 GB (or even 2 GB) of SDRAM, but the threefold step up in performance between Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 opens up use cases like large language models and computational fluid dynamics, which benefit from having more storage per core. And while Raspberry Pi OS has been tuned to have low base memory requirements, heavyweight distributions like Ubuntu benefit from additional memory capacity for desktop use cases. The optimized D0 stepping of the Broadcom BCM2712 application processor includes support for memories larger than 8 GB. And our friends at Micron were able to offer us a single package containing eight of their 16Gbit LPDDR4X die, making a 16 GB product feasible for the first time.
Carbon Removal Credits
We're proud of the low environmental impact of Raspberry Pi computers. They are small and light, which translates directly into a small upfront carbon footprint for manufacturing, logistics and disposal. With an idle power consumption in the 2-3 W range, and a fully loaded power consumption of less than 10 W, replacing a legacy x86 PC with a Raspberry Pi typically results in a significant reduction in operating power consumption, and thus ongoing carbon footprint.
But while our upfront carbon footprint is small, it is not zero. So today, we're launching Raspberry Pi Carbon Removal Credits, priced at $4, giving you the option to mitigate the emissions associated with the manufacture and disposal of a modern Raspberry Pi.
How does it work?
We commissioned Inhabit to conduct an independent assessment of the carbon footprint of manufacturing, shipping, and disposing of a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5, which came to 6.5 kg of CO₂ equivalent. When you buy a Raspberry Pi Carbon Removal Credit from one of our Approved Resellers, we pay our friends at UNDO Carbon to begin capturing that quantity of CO2 from the atmosphere using enhanced rock weathering (ERW) technology.
It's that simple.
What is enhanced rock weathering?
As rain falls through the atmosphere, it combines with CO₂ to form carbonic acid. When this weak acid falls on mountains, forests and grassland, the CO₂ interacts with rocks and soil, mineralises, and is safely stored in solid carbonate form. The natural process of weathering already accounts for the removal of one billion tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere every year.
ERW accelerates this natural process by spreading crushed silicate rock (in our case, basalt) on agricultural land, increasing the surface area of the rock and therefore increasing its contact with CO₂. Overall, this reduces the timescales involved from millions of years to mere decades. Once the reaction takes place, the CO₂ is permanently locked away for 100,000+ years.
In addition to capturing CO₂, spreading basalt on agricultural land also brings with it significant co-benefits. Silicate rocks are mineral-rich; as they weather, they release nutrients such as magnesium, calcium and potassium, improving soil health and reducing the need for fertilisers. Trials with the University of Newcastle have shown an increase in crop yield following the application of crushed basalt rock. In addition, the alkaline bicarbonate ions captured during the ERW process are eventually washed out to sea, where they help to deacidify our oceans.
You can find out more about UNDO's work here.
Why capture carbon in the future, not the past?
Generally, when you buy carbon offsets, you are paying for carbon capture which has taken place in the past (for example by planting and growing trees). When you buy Raspberry Pi Carbon Removal Credits, UNDO spreads basalt now, which then captures the rated quantity of carbon over, roughly, the next twenty years.
We've chosen ERW because we believe it's a more rigorous, scalable, verifiable approach to carbon capture than traditional approaches like planting (or, more ridiculously, agreeing not to cut down) trees: quite simply, it's our best shot at drawing down a material fraction of humanity's carbon emissions in our lifetimes. But, as it is a relatively new technology, there is no pool of offsets corresponding to historical capture available for us to purchase.
So, we're doing the next best thing: paying UNDO to start an irrevocable process of carbon capture which will continue over the next two decades and beyond. We hope that our embrace of ERW will help raise awareness of this world-changing technology, and perhaps inspire others to take their first steps with it.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
Why 16 GB, and why now?
We're continually surprised by the uses that people find for our hardware. Many of these fit into 8 GB (or even 2 GB) of SDRAM, but the threefold step up in performance between Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 opens up use cases like large language models and computational fluid dynamics, which benefit from having more storage per core. And while Raspberry Pi OS has been tuned to have low base memory requirements, heavyweight distributions like Ubuntu benefit from additional memory capacity for desktop use cases. The optimized D0 stepping of the Broadcom BCM2712 application processor includes support for memories larger than 8 GB. And our friends at Micron were able to offer us a single package containing eight of their 16Gbit LPDDR4X die, making a 16 GB product feasible for the first time.
Carbon Removal Credits
We're proud of the low environmental impact of Raspberry Pi computers. They are small and light, which translates directly into a small upfront carbon footprint for manufacturing, logistics and disposal. With an idle power consumption in the 2-3 W range, and a fully loaded power consumption of less than 10 W, replacing a legacy x86 PC with a Raspberry Pi typically results in a significant reduction in operating power consumption, and thus ongoing carbon footprint.
But while our upfront carbon footprint is small, it is not zero. So today, we're launching Raspberry Pi Carbon Removal Credits, priced at $4, giving you the option to mitigate the emissions associated with the manufacture and disposal of a modern Raspberry Pi.
How does it work?
We commissioned Inhabit to conduct an independent assessment of the carbon footprint of manufacturing, shipping, and disposing of a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5, which came to 6.5 kg of CO₂ equivalent. When you buy a Raspberry Pi Carbon Removal Credit from one of our Approved Resellers, we pay our friends at UNDO Carbon to begin capturing that quantity of CO2 from the atmosphere using enhanced rock weathering (ERW) technology.
It's that simple.
What is enhanced rock weathering?
As rain falls through the atmosphere, it combines with CO₂ to form carbonic acid. When this weak acid falls on mountains, forests and grassland, the CO₂ interacts with rocks and soil, mineralises, and is safely stored in solid carbonate form. The natural process of weathering already accounts for the removal of one billion tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere every year.
ERW accelerates this natural process by spreading crushed silicate rock (in our case, basalt) on agricultural land, increasing the surface area of the rock and therefore increasing its contact with CO₂. Overall, this reduces the timescales involved from millions of years to mere decades. Once the reaction takes place, the CO₂ is permanently locked away for 100,000+ years.
In addition to capturing CO₂, spreading basalt on agricultural land also brings with it significant co-benefits. Silicate rocks are mineral-rich; as they weather, they release nutrients such as magnesium, calcium and potassium, improving soil health and reducing the need for fertilisers. Trials with the University of Newcastle have shown an increase in crop yield following the application of crushed basalt rock. In addition, the alkaline bicarbonate ions captured during the ERW process are eventually washed out to sea, where they help to deacidify our oceans.
You can find out more about UNDO's work here.
Why capture carbon in the future, not the past?
Generally, when you buy carbon offsets, you are paying for carbon capture which has taken place in the past (for example by planting and growing trees). When you buy Raspberry Pi Carbon Removal Credits, UNDO spreads basalt now, which then captures the rated quantity of carbon over, roughly, the next twenty years.
We've chosen ERW because we believe it's a more rigorous, scalable, verifiable approach to carbon capture than traditional approaches like planting (or, more ridiculously, agreeing not to cut down) trees: quite simply, it's our best shot at drawing down a material fraction of humanity's carbon emissions in our lifetimes. But, as it is a relatively new technology, there is no pool of offsets corresponding to historical capture available for us to purchase.
So, we're doing the next best thing: paying UNDO to start an irrevocable process of carbon capture which will continue over the next two decades and beyond. We hope that our embrace of ERW will help raise awareness of this world-changing technology, and perhaps inspire others to take their first steps with it.
View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
