The Raspberry Foundation is firing on all cylinders as 2024 draws to a close.
The Raspberry Pi 5 was released just over a year ago - in November 2023 to be exact - and after a difficult first few months of supply, it is now "in stock" at most retailers. This is a more comfortable situation for the Raspberry Foundation, which can more confidently launch derivatives of its single-board nanocomputer, as it did with the Raspberry Pi 4 in its day. As with the Pi 4, the Compute Module and Pi x00 have been announced in quick succession, extending the Pi 5 product range without fundamentally changing its performance.
Raspberry Pi
We won't go back over the announcement of the Compute Module 5 today, and with good reason, as we already did a few days ago: for the Raspberry Foundation, it's a question of further reducing the dimensions of its machine without reducing performance. Well, today it's the other way around. Well, there's no question of reducing performance, but the machine in question is significantly larger than the Compute Module 5, but also than the Raspberry Pi 5. The Raspberry Pi 500, as it is called, takes up the formula of the Pi 400, which struck a nostalgic chord with many users. In fact, the Raspberry Pi Foundation set out to integrate its Raspberry Pi into the iconic Raspberry Pi keyboard. The result is an almost complete machine that simply needs to be connected to a screen and fitted with a mouse: a bit like the personal computers of the 80s and 90s... but yes, you've probably already heard of the Atari ST or Amiga!
The Raspberry Pi 500 is based on the same logic. On a slightly larger PCB than the Raspberry Pi 5, the same Broadcom BCM2712 processor has been integrated, with its 4 ARM Cortex A76 CPU cores, 4 MB combined cache and VideoCore VII graphics solution. The processor is still supported by 2, 4 or 8 GB of RAM (at the user's discretion), but what's new is that the space gained on the PCB allows more connectors to be integrated: in addition to the microSD reader, the Raspberry Pi 500 features two USB-A 3.0 ports and one USB-A 2.0 port, two HDMI 4Kp60 ports and the 40-pin GPIO connector, but this time it's horizontal and cleverly accessible without opening the chassis. In fact, the Raspberry Pi 500 is delivered in a case that is identical to the Raspberry Pi keyboard case. Compact and practical.
Raspberry Pi
The most astonishing aspect of the Raspberry Pi is the announcement of a Raspberry Pi monitor. The Raspberry Monitor was not expected by any observers, and its price tag is a reflection of the brand's products: low enough to be accessible to as many people as possible. Raspberry is asking $100, which would be equivalent to 115 euros in Europe. At this price, you can't expect a specification sheet to wake the dead, but it's still decent: a 15.6-inch diagonal IPS panel designed for 1920×1080 with 250 nits of maximum brightness. Better still, the HDMI-connected beast can be connected to the Raspberry Pi 5 for its power supply. You'll have to agree to limit brightness (60% of maximum) and sound volume (50% of maximum, because yes, there are two speakers, each rated at 1.2 watts). Of course, you can also connect the monitor to an external power supply for maximum brightness and sound.
