Raspberry Pi Stack Exchange
Raspberry Pi Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [hardware]

Questions relating to the physical components that the Raspberry Pi consists of.

An overview of the Raspberry Pi board

enter image description here

Component List

Model A

+-------------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+
| System-on-a-chip (SoC): | Broadcom BCM2835 (CPU + GPU + SDRAM)           |
| CPU:                    | 700 MHz ARM11 ARM1176JZF-S core                |
| GPU:                    | Broadcom VideoCore IV,OpenGL ES 2.0,OpenVG     |
|                         | 1080p30 H.264 high-profile encode/decode       |
| Memory (SDRAM)iB        | 256 MiB                                        |
| USB 2.0 ports           | 1                                              |
| Video outputs           | Composite video,Composite RCA, HDMI            |
| Audio outputs           | TRS connector 3.5 mm jack, HDMI                |
| Audio inputs            | None                                           |
| Onboard Storage         | SD / MMC / SDIO card slot                      |
| Onboard Network         | None                                           |
| Low-level peripherals   | General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins,      |
|                         | Serial Peripheral Interface Bus (SPI), I²C,    |
|                         | I²S[2], Universal asynchronous                 |
|                         | receiver/transmitter (UART)                    |
| Real-time clock         | None                                           |
| Power ratings           | 500mA, (2.5 Watt)                              |
| Power source            | 5V via Micro USB or GPIO header                |
| Size                    | 85.60mm x 53.98mm (3.370 × 2.125 inch)         |
+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------+

Model B

Same as above with the following additions: 

+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------+
| USB 2.0 ports           | 2                                              |
| Power ratings           | 700mA, (3.5 Watt)                              |
| Onboard Network         | 10/100 wired Ethernet RJ45                     |
+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------+
1109 questions
60
votes
5 answers

Why is the CPU sometimes referred to as BCM2708, sometimes BCM2835?

I've seen the System on Chip of Raspberry Pi referred to usually as "BCM2835" (e.g. on Wikipedia), but sometimes as "BCM2708" (e.g. sources for Linux SPI driver are in bcm2708.c, or in comments to my other question). Which is right, or are both -…
akavel
  • 1,216
  • 3
  • 12
  • 15
42
votes
5 answers

Does the Raspberry Pi have Hardware Floating Point support?

There are a few articles around that say it is best to use soft float algorithms on ARM devices, because very few ARM chips have hard float coprocessors. So, does the RPi have hard float support? If so, is it quicker that soft float? (It should be,…
Alex Chamberlain
  • 15,530
  • 14
  • 67
  • 113
35
votes
2 answers

Raspberry Pi Zero W is ARMv6 or ARMv7?

I would like update Node.js to the latest version and I need to choose between ARMv6 and ARMv7. From the package manager point of view this is an ARMv6 processor and dmesg tells it is CPU: ARMv6-compatible processor [410fb767] revision 7 (ARMv7)…
jeanmi
  • 453
  • 1
  • 4
  • 5
33
votes
5 answers

Does the Raspberry Pi need a cooling system?

Searching on Newegg for "raspberry pi", the results included many heatsinks and as well as a few other types of cooling systems, yet these items do not seem to appear when looking through the stores of the official distributors. Does the Raspberry…
IQAndreas
  • 983
  • 3
  • 10
  • 12
28
votes
4 answers

What are the RUN pin holes on Raspberry Pi 2?

Inbetween the Display port, and the Activity LED on my Raspbery Pi 2, There are 2 holes boxed off, labled with: "Run". What are those pins? What do they do? Is it a reset?
j0h
  • 2,473
  • 6
  • 25
  • 34
27
votes
5 answers

Can I switch mains devices on/off?

Is it possible to switch mains-powered devices (such as a coffee machine) on and off using the Pi? If so, what extra components do I need?
Tom Medley
  • 4,089
  • 8
  • 31
  • 46
23
votes
5 answers

Raspberry Pi hardware ID

Is there a possibility to store a hardware ID for each Raspberry Pi based device? Let's say I have 10 custom devices based on Raspberry Pi platform that are used for distributed tasks. At some point, for some reason, I want to erase everything from…
Alexandru Irimiea
  • 487
  • 3
  • 6
  • 11
18
votes
2 answers

Editing Serial Number

On the official raspberrypi.org forum, "Dom" - a moderator wrote: I've fudged my board to have your serial number How do I edit the serial number of a Raspberry Pi?
Another Simon
  • 197
  • 1
  • 1
  • 4
16
votes
3 answers

Pi as a RFID Reader

I have a need for a quick and dirty UHF RFID reader. I'm very green when it comes to electronics and have a couple questions: Has someone already done (documented) this? Can a UHF antenna be connected to a Pi via a coax to USB adapter (or perhaps…
Chris
  • 263
  • 2
  • 5
16
votes
2 answers

What are the two long components on the board?

On the Raspberry Pi there are two components about an inch long, one next to the ethernet and one next to the logo. I have been wondering since I received the device what these components are? These are the components I'm referring to.
Shane Hudson
  • 498
  • 4
  • 17
16
votes
2 answers

The Manufacturing Cost Of Raspberry Pi

I am curious to know how much raspberry pi cost to manufacture (not the cost to us) at the volume it is being manufactured now? I mostly want to know who how much margin is left in the larger production of a cheap computer like the pi?
iCode
  • 323
  • 3
  • 5
16
votes
3 answers

Is there a good comparison chart for Raspberry Pi and similar enthusiast project boards?

I hear and see things about Raspberry Pi, Arduino (someone gave me one and I have tried a few things), and Beagle Board (and variations). What other boards should be on this list? Where do these boards leave off and vendor specific evaluation board…
DeveloperDon
  • 261
  • 2
  • 5
15
votes
4 answers

Home cloud server with raspberryPI. What caveats I may get?

Originally my question is here. But nevertheless I will copy part of it here. At home I have external USB 3TB HDD. Also at home I have a wifi, but there is no strict computer place. So my first goal was to be able to connect to my HDD via wifi. So…
Jevgeni Smirnov
  • 261
  • 1
  • 2
  • 5
13
votes
3 answers

Why are certain resistors not populated on the device?

I just took a closer look at my board, and a few of the resistors have pads but are not actually soldered on. It seems R4, 5, 7 and 10 by the GPIO header are absent, as well as 36 and 37 on the other side by the USB. Does anyone know what happened…
teraquendya
  • 309
  • 1
  • 7
13
votes
4 answers

Can I use the Raspberry Pi as a Mini-PC?

I have never used a Raspberry Pi before, but for some time I am thinking about buying one in order to create some mini personal computer out of it. I would use it for playing movies(preferably output to tv), internet browsing and maybe creating some…
Dragos
  • 233
  • 2
  • 5
1
2 3
…
10 11