[noggin]

Interesting - didn't see this coming : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/02/...i_model_2/

A new generation of Raspberry Pi with a 900MHz Quad Core CPU with 1GB of RAM.

"Outwardly, there's little to distinguish the Pi 2 from the Pi 1 Model B+, as it's now designated. At its heart, though, is the BCM2836, which according to Upton has been in development for a couple of years. It's "very, very similar" to its predecessor – the ARMv6-compatible BCM2835 – but with four cores and "a little tweak to allow us to address the gig of RAM", he explained."

According to the article it runs around 6x faster than the B+ (a single threaded test ran around 3x faster on a single core), and should ship for a similar price point.

Very interesting. Visually it looks identical to the B+ (wonder if the 4xUSB2 and Ethernet are still hanging off a single USB 2 connection?)

** EDIT to remove incorrect information **

[calev]

Bout damn time. A little late and as you said there is competition now. But its cheap so ill probably buy one anyway. Especially if the software is backwards compatible.

[BORIStheBLADE]

Bout damn time. A little late and as you said there is competition now. But its cheap so ill probably buy one anyway. Especially if the software is backwards compatible.

I was thinking the same thing!

[wrxtasy]

I'm calling this article out as everywhere else I have read said a Pi 2 will not be released till 2017.

If it such major news funny how none of the regular Pi websites have no news of it.
The article looks very much like a pisstake anyway.

[Milhouse]

I'm calling this article out as everywhere else I have read said a Pi 2 will not be released till 2017.

If it such major news funny how none of the regular Pi websites have no news of it.
The article looks very much like a pisstake anyway.

It's true. The Register have, unfortunately, decided to go early with the news. The official announcement will come later today, probably 9am UK time.

[Milhouse]

Especially if the software is backwards compatible.

It is, 100%. Although recompilation is advised for best performance (taking advantage of the new ARMv7 and NEON instructions).

[PANiCnz]

Looks like it is still based around ARM11 cores according to the interview - so is ARMv6 based and the same architecture as the original Pi - but with 4 cores instead of just 1. However this also means no Ubuntu (as they don't support ARMv6)

The Register article you linked to says it's four A7 cores, so its the ARM v7 instruction set.

[teeedubb]

Its on sale now:
http://au.rs-online.com/web/p/processor-...s/8326274/

Im very tempted to buy one... But I have no use for one...

[tdhz77]

Its on sale now:
http://au.rs-online.com/web/p/processor-...s/8326274/

Im very tempted to buy one... But I have no use for one...

Ahh come on now teeedubb you can always find something to use this for...

[twelvebore]

So, how well threaded is Kodi?

[T800]

I've ordered one. Will give it a whirl with Raspbmc tomorrow.

[QLink]

what's the reason why it still has only 100MBit network interface ?
does anyone know ?
is a gigabit interface that more expensive, or does the arcitecture not support it ?

[fritsch]

So, how well threaded is Kodi?

Was that a joke? After starting kodi 10 threads run by default. For video decoding it won't help much as hw decoders are single threaded. But for let's say audio decoding, transcoding it will be really nice.

This will be the first time I will buy myself in.

And remember: Good hardware is nothing without an implementation that fully uses these features. Here the PI code is of very nice quality and highly optimized.

This hw release will make it very, very hard for other competitors in the non 4K segment.

I think their prices will reduce a lot now - who would still buy a box for 99 dollars as htpc, that has not half the same already implemented capabilities.

[wrxtasy]

Ok I'm a believer now, this will be a nice speed bump for the RPi

My rule is never buy overly expensive hardware for a pure Kodi box as you can upgrade 3 or 4 times before you reach more expensive competitor hardware prices.
Get one that just does the job and has very stable firmware.

Broadcom BCM2836 900MHz ARM Cortex-A7 quad-core processor with VideoCore IV dual-core GPU
GPU provides Open GL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
GPU is capable of 1Gpixel/s, 1.5Gtexel/s or 24GFLOPs with texture filtering and DMA infrastructure
1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM
HD 1080p video output
Composite video (PAL/NTSC) output
Stereo audio output
10/100 BaseT RJ45 Ethernet socket
HDMI 1.3 & 1.4 video/audio socket
3.5mm 4-pole audio/composite video out jack socket
4 x USB 2.0 sockets
15-way MPI CSI-2 connector for Raspberry Pi HD video camera (775-7731)
15-way Display Serial Interface connector
MicroSD card socket
Boots from MicroSD card, running a version of the Linux operating system (See Note below)
40-pin header for GPIO and serial buses (compatible with Raspberry Pi Model B 26-pin header)
Header footprint for JTAG connector
Power supply: +5V @ 2A via microUSB socket
Dimensions: 86 x 56 x 20mm

[Milhouse]

what's the reason why it still has only 100MBit network interface ?
does anyone know ?
is a gigabit interface that more expensive, or does the arcitecture not support it ?

It's using the same USB/LAN architecture as the original Pi1, an architecture that has seen a lot of time/money/effort invested to weed out all the bugs so it makes sense to continue using what is now a well known slice of IP, and also ensures backwards compatibility with previous models. The uprated CPU can finally saturate the 100Mbit/s interface (a 1GHz Pi1 couldn't quite manage it), but would a GigE interface really be justified on a Cortex-A7 device? Sure, you'd be able to transfer data a bit more quickly but you're not likely to reach stellar levels of network performance when the rest of the system is likely to be CPU bound.