The wildly popular $35 Raspberry Pi made waves when it first launched in March.
However, the dev board has faced some pretty stiff competition in recent months, specifically from Android-powered bare-bones systems like Via’s APC, the Hardkernel ODROID X, Goosberry, UPuter Pi and the CubieBoard.
Meanwhile, the folks at Raspberry have been making some minor hardware mods and tweaks to the Pi, with a second iteration of the device already circulating in the wild.
The new revision will replace the original board as soon as stock is depleted. If you recently purchased a Raspberry Pi and want to know if your device is in the new version you can run a command cat/proc/cpuinfo and if you’re running the new revision 2.0 you will see code numbers four, five, or six.
Now that you know how to identify which version of the Raspberry Pi you have, you may be wondering what changed with the latest revision. Among the hardware updates are a reset switch circuit implementation that requires a header to function. The board can now be powered by USB. The manufacturer says the new version can be powered by a, “USB hub that back feeds power, but it is important that the chosen hub cannot supply more than 2.5A under fault conditions.”
The board also boasts additional I/O expansion options, along with a fix applied to address HDMI television interference that some users noted on the original device. In additiom, the latest iteration features new mounting holes for ATE testing purposes.
Interestingly, the folks behind the Raspberry Pi say the revisions to the second version aren’t significant enough to warrant people holding out for a version 2.0 device.
“We’ve received a lot of feedback about the original board design. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be gradually rolling out a new revision 2.0 PCB which incorporates some of the most popular suggestions,” reads an official blog post.
“[However], we don’t believe that the changes are large enough to make it worth ‘holding on’ for revision 2.0, unless you have a specific requirement to add an audio codec or you need mounting holes for some industrial application.”
Personally, I think the real question here is whether you’re willing to risk the HDMI issue found on the original board, and if you want to power your device via USB. If you do want USB power, it’s definitely worth holding out for the second version of the Raspberry Pi.
