by The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced a new 8GB version of the Raspberry Pi 4.
While the Raspberry Pi 4’s CPU has been able to support up to 16GB of memory, it has been held back by the availability of 8GB LPDDR4 packages. (LPDDR4 is the type of RAM that the Raspberry Pi utilizes)
However, thanks to Micron, there is now an 8 GB LPDDR4 module that is compatible with the Raspberry Pi.
The newly introduced memory module from Micron has allowed the release of the new Raspberry Pi 4 8GB edition.
Alongside the introduction of the larger memory configuration, there have been some other slight modifications to the Raspberry Pi 4’s design.
Other Changes Introduced with the 8GB Raspberry Pi 4
One problem that had to be dealt with was the peak current load required by the new memory package.
To accommodate this, one of the Raspberry Pi engineers shuffled the power supply components on the board so that they could adjust the circuit to handle the larger current.
This process involved removing a switch-mode power supply from the right side of the board next to the USB 2.0 sockets. A new switcher was added next to the USB-C power connector and the inductors were replaced.
One downside to this change is that it delayed the release of the 8GB Raspberry Pi by 3-months. The reason for this is that the supply chain for the new inductors were disrupted by COVID-19.
Other than the power circuit changes, there were no other significant changes made to the Raspberry Pi’s hardware.
Price Point of the 8GB Raspberry Pi 4
The Raspberry Pi 4 8GB also comes with a new price tag.
To purchase yourself an 8GB Pi, you will need to fork out $75 USD, a $20 USD increase over the 4GB Raspberry Pi.
The 8GB edition is available worldwide now via any of the authorized Raspberry Pi resellers.
64-Bit Raspberry Pi OS
Two other announcements came alongside the release of the Raspberry Pi.
The first of these announcements is that the Raspbian operating system has now been renamed to Raspberry Pi OS.
The second announcement is a long-awaited release of a 64-bit version of the Raspbian (Now Raspberry Pi OS) operating system.
The release of a 64-bit version will be a welcome improvement by many. With a 32-bit operating system, an application can only ever use 3GB of RAM at once.
With a 64-bit operating system, an application running on the new Raspberry Pi will be able to map all 8GB of RAM and utilize it all.
The current release of the Raspberry Pi OS 64-Bit can be considered useable but is still in a BETA state. It is not recommended to use this as your full time operating system at this time.
The full release of the 64-bit operating system is expected to take a couple of months as bugs are dealt with, and new functionality is implemented into the OS.
You can obtain the latest available version of the 64-Bit OS from the Raspberry Pi forums.
