Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the States, and you know what I’m thankful for? The Raspberry Pi foundation. The Raspberry Pi 1 Model A+, released a year ago this month, is only $20, which isn’t much of a barrier for budding developers. Still, the foundation wanted to make it even cheaper, and now we have the Raspberry Pi Zero for a cool five bucks.
All of the Raspberry Pi models have sold extremely well, so even the most cynical minds have to realize that there is no financial incentive to produce the Raspberry Pi Zero. Yet here it is, with the following specs:
- A Broadcom BCM2835 application processor
- 1GHz ARM11 core (40% faster than Raspberry Pi 1)
- 512MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM
- A micro-SD card slot
- A mini-HDMI socket for 1080p60 video output
- Micro-USB sockets for data and power
- An unpopulated 40-pin GPIO header
- Identical pinout to Model A+/B+/2B
- An unpopulated composite video header
- Smallest ever form factor, at 65mm x 30mm x 5mm
They’ve already built tens of thousands of Raspberry Pi Zero units, but at five bucks a pop, they expect them to sell out in no time. It might be a little while before you can get your hands on one, but more are definitely on the way.