New Pi with Windows support

Six months on from the release of the Raspberry Pi Model B+, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has today announced the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B – a brand new version of the single board computer that features significantly improved hardware, and perhaps most notably, support for Windows 10.

So how does the new Raspberry Pi 2 Model B compare to the older Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+? The biggest difference is the inclusion of a 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU, which the foundation says will offer up to six times the performance of the Raspberry Pi 1 B+. In addition, the new board has 1GB of RAM, which is double the amount of the older model. The rest of the board; including the size, layout, and ports, remains the same – making it backwards compatible with the previous generation.

It’s thanks to the transition from ARMv6 to ARMv7 architecture, that the Raspberry Pi 2 will be able to run Windows. The Raspberry Pi Foundation says it’s been working closely with Microsoft over the last six months to bring official Windows 10 support to the new board. Microsoft will be offering a special Pi-compatible version to makers (for free) later this year through its Windows Developer Program for IoT.

The new Raspberry Pi 2 is priced at $35, and is available to purchase today from element14 and RS Components. That’s exactly the same price as the Raspberry Pi 1 Model B and Model B+, which the foundation says will continue to be produced whilst demand remains.

We have a couple of Model B Pi in projects so it will be interesting to see the performance boost.