For Raspberry Pi 3, Broadcom have supported us with a new SoC, BCM2837. This retains the same basic architecture as its predecessors BCM2835 and BCM2836, so all those projects and tutorials which rely on the precise details of the Raspberry Pi hardware will continue to work. The 900MHz 32-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU complex has been replaced by a custom-hardened 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53. Combining a 33% increase in clock speed with various architectural enhancements, this provides a 50-60% increase in performance in 32-bit mode versus Raspberry Pi 2, or roughly a factor of ten over the original Raspberry Pi.
James Adams spent the second half of 2015 designing a series of prototypes, incorporating BCM2837 alongside the BCM43438 wireless “combo” chip. He was able to fit the wireless functionality into very nearly the same form-factor as the Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+ and Raspberry Pi 2 Model B; the only change is to the position of the LEDs, which have moved to the other side of the SD card socket to make room for the antenna. Roger Thornton ran the extensive (and expensive) wireless conformance campaign, allowing us to launch in almost all countries simultaneously. Phil Elwell developed the wireless LAN and Bluetooth software.
All of the connectors are in the same place and have the same functionality, and the board can still be run from a 5V micro-USB power adapter. This time round, we’re recommending a 2.5A adapter if you want to connect power-hungry USB devices to the Raspberry Pi.
A 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU (~10x the performance of Raspberry Pi 1)
Integrated 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1
Complete compatibility with Raspberry Pi 1 and 2
Specifications:
Processor
Broadcom BCM2387 chipset.
1.2GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A53 (64Bit)
802.11 b/g/n Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.1 (Bluetooth Classic and LE)
GPU
Dual Core VideoCore IV® Multimedia Co-Processor. Provides Open GL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode.
Capable of 1Gpixel/s, 1.5Gtexel/s or 24GFLOPs with texture filtering and DMA infrastructure
Memory
1GB LPDDR2
Operating System
Boots from Micro SD card, running a version of the Linux operating system or Windows 10 IoT
Dimensions
85 x 56 x 17mm
Power
Micro USB socket 5V1, 2.5A
Connectors
Ethernet
10/100 BaseT Ethernet socket
Video Output
HDMI (rev 1.3 & 1.4)
Composite RCA (PAL and NTSC)
Audio Output
Audio Output 3.5mm jack
HDMI
USB 4 x USB 2.0 Connector
GPIO Connector
40-pin 2.54 mm (100 mil) expansion header: 2x20 strip
Providing 27 GPIO pins as well as +3.3 V, +5 V and GND supply lines
Camera Connector
15-pin MIPI Camera Serial Interface (CSI-2)
Display Connector
Display Serial Interface (DSI) 15 way flat flex cable connector with two data lanes and a clock lane
Memory Card Slot
Push/pull Micro SDIO |