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What is Raspberry Pi? What Can You Do with it?
To let you know about what is Raspberry Pi? we would say at first that it is a small computer. You can get it available at a low price. If you want to use it, you need to plug it into a TV or any PC. The size of this computer is like a credit card. The Raspberry Pi needs the right keyboard and mouse.
People who want to know how to program Scratch or Python can use it. It is beneficial for them, for sure. Compared to a desktop computer, there is nothing that the Raspberry Pi cannot do. It can browse the web, stream top-quality video, create spreadsheets, allow you to play games, etc.
What It Can Do?
It is a small computer that comes with a single board. Raspberry Pi Foundation made this series of little computers in the United Kingdom. People used Raspberry Pi to promote the fundamental knowledge of computer science in schools in the early days. But after the upgrade of the Raspberry Pi, it became very exoteric around the world.
The primary usage of the Raspberry Pi is in the field of Robotics. As it costs shallow and has high portability, you get to see its usages in many places. Nowadays, People use it for weather monitoring. It is an excellent and top-selling British computer.
According to the statistics, nearly 30 million of these types of boards will be sold in 2019. The manufacturing process mostly takes place in Pencoed that is in Wales. Sony factories lead the leading role in this case. However, Japan and China also produce Raspberry Pi.
From this article, you get to know about ‘what is Raspberry Pi’ , the generations of Raspberry Pi, what is Raspberry Pi foundation, etc. As well as you can gather knowledge regarding the software and the hardware of Raspberry Pi, and so on.
What is Raspberry Pi Foundation
It is an educational organization that is in the United Kingdom. The main focus of the organization is to make people advanced in the field of computers, computer science, etc.
About Raspberry Pi Generations:
When you use Raspberry Pi, you will meet many generations of it. All the models of Raspberry Pi come with an updated central processing unit and Graphics processing Unit (GPU).
Raspberry Pi 1st Generation: The first version of there Raspberry Pi was in February 2012. At that time, it was a simple model.
Raspberry Pi 2nd Generation: After two years of 2014, the Raspberry Pi organization invented the single-board computer that improved design. The size of the Raspberry Pi Model B+ board is like the size of credit cards. After one year, Inventors released both Raspberry Pi A+ and Raspberry Pi B+ models. These come with great design.
Feature of the Raspberry Pi 2:
- A 900 MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor
- 1 GB RAM
A Raspberry Pi Zero is small in size. If you use it, compared to others, you will get GPIO. This term stands for General Purpose Input Output. Developers launched the Raspberry Pi Zero W on 28 February 2017. It features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities.
Developers launched the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B in February 2016. The features of Raspberry Pi 3 Model B are as follows:
- A 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad-core processor
- 11n Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth
- USB boot
After some days, they released the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. The features of this model are:-
- A faster 1.4 GHz processor
- A 3× faster gigabit Ethernet
- 4 / 5 GHz dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi that has 100 Mbit/s
- USB boot
- Web boot
Developers released the Raspberry Pi 4 Model in June 2019. It features-
- A 1.5 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 processor
- On-board 802.11ac Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth 5
- Full Gigabit Ethernet
- Two USB 2.0 ports
- Two USB 3.0 port
- Dual-monitor support through a pair of micro HDMI- Type D ports for up to 4K resolution
What is Raspberry Pi Hardware:
When you enter the field of Raspberry Pi hardware, you will face these hardware parts. The name of the hardware parts are as follows:-
- Central processing unit
- Amount of memory capacity
- Networking support
- Peripheral-device support
Processor
People use a 32-bit 900 MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor in the Raspberry Pi 2B. In the early days, the old V1.1 model of the Raspberry Pi 2 contained—
- A Broadcom BCM2836 SoC
- A 900 MHz 32-bit
- Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor
- 256 KiB shared L2 cache
Later, developers updated the version of the Raspberry Pi 2 V1.2. Here are the features of Raspberry Pi 2 V1.2.
Features:
- A Broadcom BCM2837 SoC
- A 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor
In Raspberry Pi 3, we use the same model of SoC of Raspberry Pi 2 as default. But nowadays, this model of SoC is no longer. People haven’t used it since 2014.
RAM
Raspberry Pi Model A and Raspberry Pi Model B contain 256 MiB RAM. If you use the old beta Model B board, you can see the 128 MiB RAM set to the GPU by default. There were only Raspberry Pi models A and Raspberry Pi model B, three different splits in previous times. These all three come with 256 MiB RAM.
Here, We have given the uses of different RAMs.
- The 192 MiB 256 MiB RAM u256 MiB RAM used in the default slit is enough for 1080p video decoding, simple 3D processing.
- People use 224 MiB for Linux processing, a 1080p framebuffer, and for any video or 3D.
- 128 MiB is for heavy 3D processing, video decoding.
What is Raspberry Pi Software:
Operating systems
Raspberry Pi allows you to install on MicroSD, MiniSD, or SD card. But it depends on a few factors which are the board and adapters. While using the Raspberry Pi 2 board, you can see a MicroSD slot also. The Raspberry Pi organization offers–
- Raspberry Pi OS
- A Debian-based that is of 32-bit
- Ubuntu
- Windows 10 IoT Core
- RISC OS
- LibreELEC
As a primary programming language, the Raspberry Pi organization offers python and Scratch. However, many other programming languages are also available. You can use multiple types of operating systems in Raspberry Pi. You can also get operating systems from official sites such as Ubuntu MATE, Windows 10 IoT Core, RISC OS, etc.
What is Raspberry Pi Driver APIs:
While using Raspberry Pi, you know that it contains a VideoCore IV GPU through a binary blob. Developers fix this Raspberry Pi driver APIs at the boot time.
Vulkan driver
Vulkan driver is the first Raspberry Pi Driver APIs that the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced first.
What is Raspberry Pi Third-party application software?
AstroPrint – This third-party software runs on the Raspberry Pi 2. It is a wireless 3D painting software.
C/C++ Interpreter Ch – The released date of the software is 3 January 2017. You can use the C/C++ interpreter Ch and Embedded Ch in commercial fields. If you are a beginner, then you can practice it using Raspberry Pi.
Minecraft – The launching date of Minecraft is 11 February 2013.