Ubuntu Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi is a series of small SBCs (Single-Board computers) integrated in the United Kingdom via the Raspberry Pi Foundation in affiliation with Broadcom. Originally, the Raspberry Pi project leaned to teaching common computer science promotion in developing countries and schools.

The actual model became more famous than anticipated, selling externally to its target market for many uses like robotics. It is used in several areas like weather monitoring due to its open design, modularity, and low cost. Typically, it is used by electronic and computer hobbyists because it adopted of USB and HDMI devices.

After the publication of the second type of board, the Raspberry Pi Foundation build-up a fresh entity which is known as Raspberry Pi Trading, along with the liability of developing technology. This foundation was rededicated as an educational charity to promote the teaching of common computer science in developing countries and schools.

The Raspberry Pi is one of the best-selling British Computer. More than 40 million boars are sold as of May 2021. Almost all PIs are developed in Sony factory in Wales, Pencoed, while others are developed in Japan and China.

Generations and Series

There are three Raspberry Pi series and many generations of all have been published. SBCs of Raspberry Pi offers a Broadcom system on a chip (also known as SoC) along with a developed ARM-compatible on-chip graphics processing unit and CPU, while the Pico version of Raspberry Pi includes an RP2040 system over a chip along with a developed ARM-compatible CPU.

Raspberry Pi

• Raspberry Pi Model B (the first generation) was published in 2012 February, followed by the cheaper and simpler Model A. The Foundation published a board with a developed structure Raspberry Pi Model B+ in 2014. These initial generation boards offer ARM11 processors or a credit card-sized approximately and represent the classic mainline form factor. Developed A+ and B+ models were published a year later. In April 2014, the "Computer Model" was published for embedded applications.
• The second version of Raspberry Pi 2 was published in 2015 February and initially offered a 900 MHz 32-bit quad-core processor, i.e., ARM Cortex-A7 with 1GB of RAM.
• The third version of Raspberry Pi Model B was published in 2016 February with a 64-bit 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, i.e., ARM Cortex-A53, onboard 802.11n WiFi, USB boot, and Bluetooth capabilities.
• The Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Model was released with a faster processor, i.e., 1.4 GHz, a three-times faster 2.4/5 GHz dual-band 802.11ac WiFi and gigabit Ethernet in 2018 Pi Day. Other features are network boot, USB boot, and Power over Ethernet.
• The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B was published in 2019 June with a 64-bit 1.5 GHz processor, i.e., ARM Cortex-A72, onboard 802.11ac WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 5, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, 2-8 GB RAM, and support by micro HDMI ports pair for up to 4000 resolution.
• The Raspberry Pi 400 was published in 2020 November. It offers a custom board that is initiated from the Raspberry Pi 4, remodeled with an attached keyboard specifically.

Raspberry Pi Zero

• The Raspberry Pi Zero with reduced I/O, size and GPIO (general-purpose input/output) capabilities was published in 2015 November.
• The Raspberry Pi Zero W version was released on February 28, 2017, the Zero version with Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities.
• The Raspberry Pi Zero WH version was released on January 12, 2018, the Zero W version with headers of pre-soldered GPIO.
• The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W version was released on October 28, 2021, the Zero W version with a SiP (System in a package) based on Raspberry Pi 3 and developed by Raspberry Pi. The Pi 2 W version is capable in contrast to previous ones.

Raspberry Pi Pico

In January 2021, Raspberry Pi Pico was published for 4 dollars. It was the first board of Raspberry Pi based on a single RP2040 microcontroller chip, which was developed by Raspberry Pi in the United Kingdom. This version includes 264GB RAM and 2MB Flash Memory. It's programmable in RUST, C CircuitPython, and MicroPython.

It has also partnered with SparkFun, Arduino, Pimoroni, Adafruit, and Vilros for building Accessories for Pico and a range of other boards with RP2040 Silicon Platform. Instead of playing the role of a basic purpose computer, it is developed for physical computing, same to the concept of an Arduino.

Hardware

The hardware of Raspberry Pi has evolved from many versions that offer changes in the kind of the central processing unit, support of peripheral device, support of networking, and memory capacity amount.

Processor

A Broadcom BCM2835 SoC applied in the initial generation Raspberry Pi contains a 700 GHz processor, i.e., ARM1176JZF-S, RAM, and VideoCore IV Graphics Processing Unit. It includes level 1 of 16 KB cache and a label 2 of 128 KB cache. The cache of level 2 is primarily used by a GPU. The ARM1176JZF-S is a similar CPU used within the original iPhone, however at the higher clock rate and coordinated with a much faster GPU.

RAM

The early structures of A and B boards Model of Raspberry Pi contained only 256 MB of RAM. By default, the early beta boards of Model B allocated 128 MB memory to the GPU of this, leaving only the 128 MB memory for CPU. Three distinct splits were feasible on the early releases of 256 MB A and B Models.

• The Raspberry Pi 2 includes 1GB RAM.
• The Raspberry Pi 3 includes 1GB RAM within the models, i.e., B and B+, and 512 MB RAM within the model, i.e., A+.
• The Raspberry Pi Zero W and Zero include 512 MB RAM.
• The Raspberry Pi 4 is present with 8, 4, and 2 GB RAM. Originally, the 1 GB model was present at the launch in 2019 June but it was discontinued in 2020 March, and the 8 GB model was launched in 2020 May.

Networking

The Model Pi Zero, A+, and A do not contain Ethernet circuitry and they are commonly linked to a network with an independent user-supplied WiFi adapter and USB Ethernet. The Ethernet port is given by a USB Ethernet adaptor (built-in) with the SMSC LAN9514 chip on the B and B+ Models.

The Raspberry Pi Zero W and 3 are equipped with a 2.4 GHz 802.11n WiFi and 4.1 Bluetooth based on a Broadcom chip, i.e., BCM43438 FullMAC along with no official monitor mode support and the Pi 3 version includes a 100/10 Mbit/s Ethernet port as well.

Special-purpose Aspects

The Raspberry Pi 4, 3A+, 1A, and Zero could be used as a "USB gadget" or USB device, plugged into other computers by a USB port on other machines. It could be configured in more than one way. For instance, to display as an ethernet device or serial device. However, originally needing software patches, it was included in the distribution of mainline Raspberry in 2016 May.

The models of Raspberry Pi with a new chipset can start through the mass storage of USB, like through a flash drive. Starting from the mass storage of USB is not present in the actual models of Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi Zero, Raspberry Pi 2 A, Raspberry Pi Pico, and Raspberry Pi 2 B models along with a lower release than the 1.2 version.

Peripherals

Optionally, the Raspberry Pi might also be implemented with a generic USB computer mouse and keyboard, although often re-configured for operating as a headless computer. Also, it might be used with USB to MIDI converters, USB storage, and any other component/device virtually with the capabilities of USB, relying on the installed drivers of the devices within the underlying operating system.

Other peripherals could be attached from several connectors and pins on the Raspberry Pi surface.

Video

A video controller can produce standard modern resolutions of TV-like full HD and HD, lower or higher monitor resolutions, and older PAL or NTSC standard resolutions of CRT TV as well. It can support the below resolutions: 1920*1200 WUXGA; 1920*1080 1080p HDTV; 1680*1050 WXGA+; 1600*1200 UXGA; 1400*1050 SXGA+; 1366*768 WXGA; 1280*1024 SXGA; 1280*800 WXGA variant; 1280*768 WXGA variant; 1280*720 720p HDTV; 1024*768 XGA; 800*600 SVGA; 640*480 VGA; 640*350 EGA.

Also, the Raspberry Pi can produce 480i and 576i composite video signals. Some supported TV signal standards are NTSC-J, NTSC, PAL-N, PAL-M, and PAL-B/G/H/I/D.

Real-time Clock

The time blemishes to being fixed over a network with the NTP (Network Time Protocol) when booting. The time information source could be another system on a Local Network that does include a real-time clock, or to the NTP server over the Internet. The time might be manually set or configured for assuming that no time passed at the time of the shutdown if no network connection is present.

The time is monotonic but might be considered before then the real-time in the latter case. For systems that need a real-time built-in clock, a number of low-cost and small add-on boards along with real-time clocks are present.

Software of Raspberry Pi

Operating systems

The foundation of Raspberry Pi facilitates Raspberry Pi OS (also known as Raspbian). It is a 32-bit Debian-based Linux distribution for install, as well as third-party Windows 10 IoT Core, Ubuntu, LibreELEC, RISC OS, and specialized distros for classroom management and Kodi media center.

It promotes Scratch and Python as the primary programming languages along with the support for several other languages. Also, several other operating systems can execute on the Raspberry Pi. There are many ways of downloading more than one operating system on a single SD card.

Another operating system (not BSD- nor Linux-based)

• Broadcom VCOS- Operating system which contains an abstraction layer developed for integrating with existing kernels, like ThreadX (which is applied on the VideoCore 4 processor), giving many drivers and middleware for the development of the applications.
• Haiku- An open-source clone of BeOS that has been unified for Raspberry Pi and many other ARM boards.
• HelenOS- a compact multi-server microkernel-based OS; has common support of Raspberry Pi since the 0.6.0 version.
• RISC OS Pi- A unique cut-down release RISC OS Pico, has been made available as well.
• Windows 10 IoT Core- Windows 10 zero-price model facilitated by Microsoft that executes on Raspberry Pi 2 natively.
• Ultibo Core- Run Time Library works on the basis of Free Pascal. Almost all Pi models are supported.

Another operating system (Linux-based)

• Android Things- An Android operating system's embedded version developed for IoT device developed.
• Alpine Linux- A distribution of Linux based on BusyBox and musl, "developed for power users who encourage resource efficiency, simplicity, and security.
• Arch Linux ARM- An Arch Linux port for ARM processor
• Ark OS- Developed for email and website self-hosting
• Betocera- a Linus OS (buildroot based) that applies Emulation Station for RetroArch and several other emulators with auxiliary scripts. Betocera is crafted for behaving more like a firmware of a video game console with every emulator and tool updated and included as one package at the time of software updates, rather than a typical Linux distribution with many package managers managing a single software update.

Another operating system (BSD-based)

• OpenBSD (on 64-bit platforms only like Raspberry Pi 3)
• NetBSD
• FreeBSD

Accessories of Raspberry Pi

• High-Quality Camera- The 12.3 MP sensor camera module, i.e., Sony IMXZ477 was published in May 2020 with supported CS- and C-mount lenses. Initially, the unit retailed for 50 US dollars.
  The 13 MP sensor camera module, i.e., ON Semiconductor AR1335 was published in November 2020 with supported S-mount lenses. Initially, the unit retailed for 99 US dollars.
• HAT expansion boards- The HAT interface was devised by the Foundation of Raspberry Pi together with the B+ Model, inspired by Arduino shield boards. All boards of HAT carry a small EEPROM containing the corresponding board details so that the OS of Raspberry Pi is informed about the HAT, and the logical details of it, corresponding to the operating system with the HAT.
• Official Display- The foundation and distributors RS Premier & Components Element/Farnell 14 released the Touch Display of Raspberry Pi on September 8, 2015.
• Infrared Camera- The foundation declared that they would start generating a camera module without any infrared filter which is known as the Pi NoIR in October 2013.
• Camera- The foundation and distributors RS Premier & Components Element/Farnell 14 released the camera board of Raspberry Pi with a firmware update on 2013 May 14. The camera board is exported with a flexible flat cable that can plug into a CSI connector which is positioned between the HDMI and Ethernet ports.
• Gertboard- The Foundation of Raspberry Pi partitioned device, developed for educational purposes, that can expand the GPI pins of Raspberry Pi for allowing interface with and control of sensors, analog signals, switches, LEDs, and other devices. Also, it contains an optional controller, i.e., Arduino-compatible to interface with a Pi.