From the course: Raspberry Pi Essential Training

Raspberry Pi compact computers

From the course: Raspberry Pi Essential Training

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Raspberry Pi compact computers

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- Raspberry Pi computers are available in a variety of different sizes, shapes, and capabilities. Raspberry Pi runs a Linux-based operating system. Your interactions aren't limited to a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. You can use your Raspberry Pi with sensors and outputs such as temperature sensors, and motors. It's a platform for real world computing. You can monitor the real world. You can write software that makes decisions based on what you get from the real world, and you can affect the world with your outputs. You might be familiar already with Raspberry Pi's credit card size computers. Several models are available, but if you are just getting started out, you're probably interested in the Raspberry Pi 4 or the Raspberry Pi 5. There's also a keyboard form factor. The computer here is actually inside the case along with the keyboard, but all of these machines have a lot in common, including Ethernet, which comes in here. You've got Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, HDMI output. There's USB. You've got a 40 pin GPIO connector that stands for General Purpose Input and Output and micro SD for operating system and data. The 4B starts at $35 and it comes in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB versions. There's a Broadcom ARM CPU here at 1.8 gigahertz. The 4B starts at $35, but it's only $75 for the 8G model, which is probably your best choice for embedded projects. There's dual HDMI output, and this version also has a USB-3 and runs off a USB-C power supply. The 5 is the newest version, and this is a proper desktop class computer, although it's very tiny. It's got a faster Broadcom ARM CPU, and it runs at 2.4 gigahertz. The Raspberry PI 5 starts at $50, but you can buy versions from 2G to 16G of ram. More RAM will cost you more money. It runs off a USB-C power supply and usefully for some more advanced users, this version also has PCI express and support solid state external drives. It also offers support for a real-time clock. Audio is transmitted over HDMI. Older versions like the Raspberry Pi 3B are available, but the people who are buying those are probably going to be putting them in older projects. So next we're going to look at the smallest option, Raspberry Pi Zero, and look at how you can build that into little projects.

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