In order to come in $10 cheaper than its big brother, the Model A+ only has 512MB of RAM, loses the Ethernet port, and cuts the USB 2.0 ports down to just one. It’s also the last « classic » Raspberry Pi board to be released.
Back in March, the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched a new version its single-board computer called the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. It offered a faster processor, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet while retaining the $35 price point. Now we’re getting a new A+ version of the board for just $25.
Long time followers of the Raspberry Pi boards will remember back in 2014 when the Foundation launched a Model A+ version of the first-generation Pi. It halved the RAM to 256MB, removed the USB hub, and the Ethernet controller in order to hit a $25 price point. Since then, we haven’t had an update to the A+ board for subsequent generations, but that changed today.
In order to lower the price by $10, the spec of the new A+ got tweaked slightly. The RAM has once again been cut in half, but that means to 512MB rather than 256MB like the original. The number of USB 2.0 ports is reduced from four to just one, there’s no Gigabit Ethernet port, and therefore no Power-over-Ethernet support.
By changing the spec the Model A+ not only enjoys a price reduction, it’s also a smaller board measuring just 65-by-56mm. In terms of performance, it uses the same Broadcom Cortex-A53 SoC running at 1.4GHz. The new board also features the same improvements to Wi-Fi, thermal management, and USB mass-storage booting as the Model B+. A new official case is also promised in the near future.
As far as the Foundation is concerned, the launch of the Model A+ brings an end to what we know as the « classic » Raspberry Pi. Eben Upton, chief executive of Raspberry Pi Trading, explains that « whatever we do next will of necessity be less of an evolution, because it will need new core silicon, on a new process node, with new memory technology. So 3A+ is about closing things out in style, answering one of our most frequent customer requests, and clearing the decks so we can start to think seriously about what comes next. »
