How do you celebrate your birthday?
If it is not by releasing a new tiny computer, you are clearly not celebrating right. Luckily, that is exactly what Raspberry Pi did for its 5th birthday. Now we can all go out and buy a Raspberry Pi Zero W, based on the Raspberry Pi Zero, but with one very important upgrade.
In IT Blogwatch, we're in DIY mode.
So what is happening? Nick Heath has some background:
Since the original $35 Raspberry Pi computer launched in 2012, it has spawned a...family of low-cost computers...The latest...is the Raspberry Pi Zero W, a...$10 board that adds Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to the cheapest member of the Pi family, the Raspberry Pi Zero.
Great! What are some of the other specs? Brian Benchoff has more details:
The specs of the new Pi Zero W are nearly identical to the previous incarnation of the...Zero. It sports a 1GHz single-core processor, 512 MB of RAM, features Mini HDMI and USB OTG ports, uses a micro USB port for power, features the...40-pin header with four additional pins for composite video and a reset button. This board...also features a CSI camera connector.
And what else do we know about it? Jon Brodkin fills in the blanks
The Zero and Zero W's dimensions are 2.6" x 1.2" x 0.2". The original Zero was 0.3 ounces, but the Zero W may be a tiny bit heavier...The Zero W also has a new case with three interchangeable lids, one that's solid, one with a hole for GPIO pins, and another with a hole for the camera module. There was no word on case pricing...the Pi Foundation doesn't control case prices the way it does with the computers themselves.
Will the new Raspberry Pi work with old projects? Ben Nuttall is in the know:
Every new Raspberry Pi released has maintained full backwards-compatibility with previous models...the new Pi Zero is no exception. All your old code and...libraries will still work -- just make sure your SD card is fully up-to-date, or grab a fresh copy of Raspbian (or use NOOBS) from the Raspberry Pi downloads page.
So what was the impetus for this new computer? We let the people at the Raspberry Pi Foundation tell us themselves:
In November 2015, we launched Raspberry Pi Zero...Over the ensuing fifteen months, Zero...found its way into everything from miniature arcade cabinets to electric skateboards. Many of these use cases need wireless connectivity...users often end up adding a USB hub to allow them to connect a keyboard, a mouse and a network adapter, and this hub can easily cost more than the Zero itself....Zero W fixes this problem by integrating more functionality into the core product.
Anything else? Piborg has one thing to say:
@Raspberry_Pi Happy 5th Birthday!