Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W: new $15 board delivers 5 times the performance of its predecessor

The cheapest member of the Raspberry Pi family of single-board computers has a successor: the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, a 64-bit quad-core processor that follows the Zero W at just $15.

Unveiled today by UK computer maker Raspberry Pi, the Pi Zero 2 W features a 1GHz processor that the manufacturer claims delivers 5 times the multi-threaded performance of the 2015 Raspberry Pi Zero.

The 65x30mm board features a quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A53 processor clocked at 1GHz. The heart of the board is the Raspberry Pi RP3A0 System Package (SiP), combining a Broadcom BCM2710A1 SoC (the same one used in the Raspberry Pi, albeit with a lower clock speed) and 512MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM. Raspberry Pi claims that the upgraded processor in Zero 2 W not only provides a significant jump in multithreading, but also improves single-threaded performance by 40%.

Of the wireless interfaces, WiFi 2.4 GHz (b/g/n) and Bluetooth 4.2 are available. In terms of physical connectivity, there is a microSD card slot, a CSI-1 camera connector, a USB on-the-go (OTG) port and a 40-pin GPIO connector. Video output is via a mini-HDMI port. With similar size and connectivity options, the Zero 2 W can be used as a replacement for the original Pi Zero and Zero W, which also means that the new board will fit into most existing Raspberry Pi Zero cases.

It is also a favorite product of Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton. "Of all the products we've launched, Zero is the one I'm most proud of: it most fully embodies our mission of giving people access to tools and eliminating cost as a barrier," Upton wrote in a blog post announcing the new device. 

Source: raspberrypi