Raspberry Pi 3 released, faster CPU, integrated Wifi

Feb 29, 2016  • Hardware

It’s only been a year since the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B was released, and to mark the 4th birthday of the Raspberry Pi a new Pi is being released today. The NEW Raspberry Pi 3 Model B! This new Pi offers a faster CPU at 1.2Ghz, along with integrated 802.11n Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1 with Bluetooth LE.

Over the last few months I’d been wondering if a new Pi might come this year. After all, hardware keeps advancing so there’s not much reason to stand still on RPi2 for long. I also didn’t want to be spoiled by rumors, so I kept those thoughts to myself, with the possible comments on Twitter.

This morning I woke up, checked my feeds and found that the Raspberry Pi 3 is being released on this Leap Day of 2016.

Here’s what’s changed in Pi3 versus Pi2:

Pi 2Pi 3
900 Mhz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU **1.2 Ghz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU**
1GB RAM 1GB RAM
no integrated Wifi **802.11n Wireless LAN**
no integrated Bluetooth **Bluetooth 4.0 w/ Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)**

Other than the above changes, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is basically the same as the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B. The Pi 3 is also completely backwards compatible with Raspberry Pi 1 and 2. The Pi 3 has the same form factor as the Pi2 and Pi2 Model B+.

Lastly, according to the Microsoft IoT Dev Center, the Windows 10 for IoT Core is supported on the Raspberry Pi 3!