Last week I wondered how far we were from a new update in the Raspberry Pi series. The last major version had been launched in February 2016, and its specifications were already shaping up for some adjustments. The foundation resolved my doubt yesterday with the official announcement of the Raspberry Pi 3 B+, which from a certain point of view follows the line of "if it isn't broken, don't fix it", adopting improvements in its connectivity systems and slightly increasing its speed.
Raspberry Pi. If your plan is to create a retro emulator platform, a firewall for your entire internal network, or a simple media playback terminal, this hardware is more than enough. However, with the passage of time, new demands have also arisen from users, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation must do what it can to respond to them, without sacrificing the original vision of offering a decent platform at low cost. And so we come to what was "Pi Day" among English speakers (3.14). By way of celebration, the foundation's CEO Eben Upton officially presented the new Raspberry Pi 3 B+, a revision of the standard Model 3 that appeared on shelves two years earlier.
Improved Connectivity and Performance
By far, the most important optimization that the 3 B+ has received is in its connectivity. Its WiFi support is now 802.11ac with dual band at 2.4 and 5 GHz, while the Bluetooth module moves to version 4.2 Low Energy, and the Ethernet port is gigabit, although it works over USB (limiting transfer to about 300 megabits per second). The SoC is the B0 variant of the Broadcom BCM2837, which maintains its four cores based on the Cortex-A53 architecture, but raises the base frequency to 1.4 GHz, 200 MHz above the previous edition. This translates into higher power consumption, and the presence of a small metal heatsink covering the chip. PoE compatibility is achieved with the help of a special module, and USB boot also stands out.
Same Price, Same Limits?
Upton confirmed that the price of the new Raspberry Pi 3 B+ will remain fixed at $35, and that previous models will not be discontinued, courtesy of their current demand. The growing pains for software should be relatively minor (after all, it's the same SoC with 200 MHz extra), and I imagine that the main projects on the web will offer updated builds within days. It's a good addition to the family, though not without limitations. Personally, I think the SoC needs a much more robust heatsink, and the use of micro USB as the power input is no longer adequate (the power supply must be 5V at 2.5A). Maybe on the Raspberry Pi 4?
