What would be the Raspberry Pi 4 like?
With the development of the smart phone, the hardware configuration of the phone is continual upgrading that the CPU upgraded from dual-core to ten-core and the RAM now has up to 8GB. The currently new generation of Raspberry Pi is 3B+, which equipped with 1.2GHz, quad-crow and 1GB RAM. In comparison, both based on Linux and adopted ARM architecture, but the configuration of Raspberry Pi 3 is significantly lower than the phone. Why the difference between both so great? Google recently announced a partnership with raspberry pi to launch Raspberry Pi 4. It seems that the configuration of Raspberry Pi 4 should have eight-core, with above 2GHz, with 4GB RAM supported DDR4L. Besides, the Raspberry Pi 2/3B supports the android system and the phone had supported Type-C interface, I believe that the Raspberry Pi 4 is no exception. The Raspberry Pi 4 may be have USB-TYPE-C (USB 3.0) interface * 4 to improve its data transmission speeds. With the coming 5G Wifi, the RPI 4 will have 2.4+5G Wifi. In addition, even if the Raspberry Pi is physically small, there has still a distance away from portable design because the current raspberry pi are supplied power by electricity with wired. So I guess that the new generation of Raspberry Pi 4 should be achieved function optimization, which is reserved battery interface, supplied power by battery, designed the power management function, support the power indicator and low battery reminder. On the other hand, the Arduino is easy to use compared with Raspberry Pi, but I find that many Arduino hobbyists think it is a little bit difficult to use Arduino to do some others operation such as drive screen and connect the shield because the operating speeds of software is slow and making a connection between the hardware is tricky. As we know, the Raspberry Pi is supported the Arduino IDE, but could not control it own IO. So most of the maker expect that the Raspberry Pi 4 is not only supported the Arduino IDE and IO, but also can upgrade the GPIO from 40P to 50P on the original basis. It sounds very convenient but the latest Raspberry Pi is not released. Of course, this would be pure speculative. In all, I think this new generation of Raspberry Pi 4 may be breakthroughs in the following areas. Hardware:
  • CPU upgrade to ARM Cortex A73 with eight-core.
  • With above 2GHz, supported automatic down frequency and manual lock frequency.
  • RAM upgrade to 4GB DDR3L.
  • Support Bluetooth 4.1, Wifi 2.4 and Wifi 5G.
  • USB-TYPE-C (USB 3.0) interface * 4, no power interface, the headset and microphone interface are integrated to one port.
  • Remove Ethernet interface.
  • Support battery power management function.
  • GPIO upgrade from 40P to 50P, among increased 10P analog port on the original basis.
System: Fully compatible with Arduino programming and it own Arduino IDE can control the GPIO port.