Raspberry Pi: New board comes with a computing chip with two different architectures

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced a new developer board, the Raspberry Pi Pico 2. Like its predecessor, this is not a single-board computer with image outputs and the ability to display desktop operating systems, but rather an alternative to an Arduino board. The RP2350 utilizes a CPU with two Cortex-M33 and RISC-V cores, with a clock frequency of 150 MHz. The two processor architectures cannot be run simultaneously. Instead, users have to select which computing cores are active. On the other hand, the board should also be able to automatically recognize which architecture is being used by stored libraries. The board also has 520 kilobyte of SRAM and 4 MB of QSPI flash storage.

The 21 x 51 millimeter board can be used at temperatures between -20 °C and 85 °C and can be operated at a voltage between 1.8 and 5.5 volts. 26 connections are available for use with sensors and actuators. Communication is possible via UART and SPI, among others, and a USB 1.1 controller is available.

The price of the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 is $5. The announcement of the Pico 2 was also accompanied by the announcement of several products based on the RP2530 from third-party manufacturers, including 4D Systems, Adafruit, Pimoroni and Seeed. Accordingly, there should soon be a large number of compatible products, such as an integrated display and additional input options.