After many releases of new products from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, it has been less active in recent months. However, everything seems to show that the foundation is already working on the next Raspberry Pi. That includes the Raspberry Pi 5. Check out our article about the Raspberry Pi and its uses if you don’t know what it is.
The Raspberry Pi 5: In preparation but no release date yet
Although the Raspberry Pi Foundation has not yet announced the release date of the Raspberry Pi 5, it is indeed part of its plans.
Eben Upton, CEO of the Raspberry Pi Foundation has already announced a new Raspberry Pi with a more powerful and faster SoC. Also, the next Raspberry Pi should have a better USB input/output chip, more RAM memory and improved network connectivity (Ethernet/Wifi).
SoC: System on a Chip (Chip present on the processor)
Like each new version of the Raspberry Pi, this one will be even closer to a classic computer by being even more powerful than the Raspberry Pi 4. On the other hand, the foundation should keep the system set up with the Raspberry Pi 4, that is to say several versions of the Raspberry Pi 5 available, having a different RAM size and a different price as well.
Regarding the release date of the Raspberry Pi 5, we have no information yet but it should not see the light of day before mid 2022, or even early 2023 if an improved version of the Raspberry Pi 4 were to be released in the meantime.
Before the Pi 5 Released: An Improved Version of the Raspberry Pi 4
The release of the Raspberry Pi 4 is starting to date and many users are asking for a revision of the latest model from the Raspberry Pi foundation.
Based on the history of the foundation, we should see an update to the Raspberry Pi 4 (the Raspberry Pi 4A).
According to rumors concerning this new Raspberry Pi 4, improvements should be made to the SoC and to the USB ports which could give way to PCIe connectivity. The latter is already in place on the Compute Module 4.
What does the community want for the Raspberry Pi 5?
The best way to find out what the Raspberry Pi 5 will include is to ask what the community wants to see for the next Raspberry Pi 5.
1. Fix the bugs present in the Pi 4
The Pi 5 is expected to alleviate issues that the current versions have, such as:
- USB-C power issues
There are many USB-C power adapters with fast charging technologies such as QuickCharge, DashCharge or SuperCharge. A hardware design flaw in the Raspberry Pi 4/4B is known to cause some adapters to misinterpret the device type. As a result, these adapters will provide more than 5V to power our Pi. This can sometimes burn out the board’s power supply or worse, the entire CPU .
So hopefully the Pi 5 doesn’t have the same design flaws.
- The USB hub and the Ethernet chip
The 4-ports USB hub & the Gigabit Ethernet controller of the Raspberry Pi 4 have sometimes become hot. Even when no device is plugged in.
This problem has only been encountered by some users and no specific reason has been found.
Result, an increase in standby temperature means a decrease in the life time of the components.
- The low voltage warning
It happened that a window appeared in the office asking to check the power supply. This problem may appear even when the power supply is new and after checking it has no problem.
In the Raspberry Pi 5, this should be fixed. It can only be triggered if the Pi is really struggling to draw enough current from the power supply.
2. Take over some features of the Raspberry Pi Pico in the Raspberry Pi 5?
Not too long ago, Raspberry Pi introduced its own microcontroller, the Raspberry Pi Pico. With a host of features such as the programmable IO state machine subsystem.
We know that being a microprocessor-based system, Raspberry Pis are not designed to perform critical tasks. For example, they can’t generate PWM signal, DAC and ADC functions, let alone handling interrupts.
Therefore, how about an integration of some of the Pico functions into the Raspberry Pi 5 such as:
- Analog inputs (ADC).
- Hardware PWM outputs.
- IO programmable state machine system.
- Additional hardware UART interfaces.
- On-chip accelerated floating point and integer libraries.
- Hardware Interrupts.
- RTC & low power modes supported by the microcontroller part of the system.
Another subject is the design and size of the Raspberry Pi 5. This subject is debated because not all users agree: some want change while others strongly oppose it.
And you, what do you expect from the Raspberry Pi 5? Let us know in the comments below.