The next generation of Raspberry Pi has arrived. Raspberry Pi 2 is $35 (£23), and it can run Windows 10.
The new model measures 85.6mm x 56.5mm and weighs 1.6 ounces, slightly larger than its predecessor. But that size difference is made up for in processing power: the new model uses Broadcom's latest SoC, the BCM2836, 1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM, and features a quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor running at 900 MHz. The Raspberry Pi Foundation claim that provides six times the performance in multithreaded benchmarks like Sysbench compared to the predecessor's 700 MHz ARM11 processor.
More importantly, as Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton points out, the A7 SoC allows the new Raspberry Pi to run on any ARM Linux distribution, and it's going to support a version of Windows 10. "For the last six months we’ve been working closely with Microsoft to bring the forthcoming Windows 10 to Raspberry Pi 2," Upton writes. "Microsoft will have much more to share over the coming months. The Raspberry Pi 2-compatible version of Windows 10 will be available free of charge to makers."
Previous versions of Raspberry Pi came in two models: the A and B, but the Raspberry Pi 2 will only be available in a single Model B, priced at $35—it's available now. You can find a distributor for the Raspberry Pi 2 right here, if you want to buy one.
