New Raspberry Pi Adds Two USB Ports
New B+ board lets you build cool things without the complication of a powered USB hub.
Raspberry Pi scion Eben Upton has announced an important new revision of the Raspberry Pi board. The new board is a revision of the popular Raspberry Pi B and is known as the Raspberry Pi B+. The most noticable change is the presence of 4 (rather than 2) USB ports. The shortage of USB ports was a common complaint with Raspberry Pi users. Once you plugged in a keyboard and mouse, the 2-port design left no room for additional USB devices. Most instruction manuals recommended a separate powered USB hub, which added complication and significant expense to the cost of the ultra-inexpensive Raspberry Pi.
The B+ board also brings other changes, including more GPIO pins (40 instead of 24) and a micro-SD memory card instead of the previous friction-fit SD card. Notably absent is the RCA video connector found on previous Rasp Pi designs.
The new board is similar in size to the previous model, but it is 2 millimeters wider, meaning that the old cases probably won't fit. Aside from these changes, most of the other specs are quite similar to the previous Model B boards (which is why this one is B+ instead of Raspberry Pi C). The system uses the same Broadcom processor with 512MB of RAM. The retail price is also the same, with a recommended price of US$ 35, EUR 29.9, or UK£ 26.
Upton said the Raspberry Pi Foundation will continue to support the Model B board “to ensure continuity of supply for our industrial customers.” Although the Raspberry Pi was developed for educational purposes, it has gained an unexpected following as a tool for industrial prototypes and small-volume manufacturing.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Latest Cinnamon Desktop Releases with a Bold New Look
Just in time for the holidays, the developer of the Cinnamon desktop has shipped a new release to help spice up your eggnog with new features and a new look.
-
Armbian 24.11 Released with Expanded Hardware Support
If you've been waiting for Armbian to support OrangePi 5 Max and Radxa ROCK 5B+, the wait is over.
-
SUSE Renames Several Products for Better Name Recognition
SUSE has been a very powerful player in the European market, but it knows it must branch out to gain serious traction. Will a name change do the trick?
-
ESET Discovers New Linux Malware
WolfsBane is an all-in-one malware that has hit the Linux operating system and includes a dropper, a launcher, and a backdoor.
-
New Linux Kernel Patch Allows Forcing a CPU Mitigation
Even when CPU mitigations can consume precious CPU cycles, it might not be a bad idea to allow users to enable them, even if your machine isn't vulnerable.
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5 Released
Notify your friends, loved ones, and colleagues that the latest version of RHEL is available with plenty of enhancements.
-
Linux Sees Massive Performance Increase from a Single Line of Code
With one line of code, Intel was able to increase the performance of the Linux kernel by 4,000 percent.
-
Fedora KDE Approved as an Official Spin
If you prefer the Plasma desktop environment and the Fedora distribution, you're in luck because there's now an official spin that is listed on the same level as the Fedora Workstation edition.
-
New Steam Client Ups the Ante for Linux
The latest release from Steam has some pretty cool tricks up its sleeve.
-
Gnome OS Transitioning Toward a General-Purpose Distro
If you're looking for the perfectly vanilla take on the Gnome desktop, Gnome OS might be for you.