Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 8GB Now Available

La Raspberry Pi 4 it is updated, and now exceeds the limit of 4GB imposed in the previous versions of the Model B of this SBC. Now you can buy the Rasbperry Pi 4 Model B 8 GB for a price of about $ 75. A very striking main memory figure that will allow you to run more processes more quickly.

Almost a year after the Raspberry Pi 4 was launched, the intense work of its developers returns to give results to satisfy the most demanding users. Already the Pi 4 has been a success, with about 3 million units sold, in its 1GB, 2GB and 4GB versions. It sure is new SBC with 8 GB will help that number continue to grow.

Work has focused on minimizing idle states and improving consumption with workloads, as well as getting started with the powerful Vulkan graphical API, PXE network boot mode, as well as bug fixes, etc. Now they are excited about the release of this other 8GB RAM version. for enthusiasts who are not satisfied with what already had.

And is that the BCM2711 chip It has not reached its limit, as it can address up to 16 GB of LPDDR4 SDRAM memory. Therefore, there is no physical barrier to adding no more than 4GB of memory. The problem was that there was no memory chip of that size and characteristics for the SBC until now.

8GB Raspberry Pi 4 chip

But the Raspberry Pi Foundation has worked with its technology partner Micron to take that step and that the chip of greater capacity was a reality. The end result is this new Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 8GB, which in other terms is still the same as the previous one.

Quite promising news, since 8GB for an SBC is a very considerable amount. If we see how the computer industry has evolved with perspective, we see that in the past these quantities in large computers were almost unattainable, and that now they can be put into a single chip on such a small and low power board.

That which Bill Gates, supposedly he thought (apocryphal quote), that 640 KB of memory should be enough for anybody has gotten way out of date. The 8GB represents 13.000 times more than that and will not be enough in the near future or depending on what applications.

Other new features of the 4GB Raspberry Pi 8 Model B

Rasbperry Pi 4 Power

If you think RAM is the only thing What has changed in this new Raspberry Pi, the truth is that you are wrong. It is true that many characteristics remain the same, but not all ...

The increased capacity of the RAM requires new packaging, as well as new components for power supply on the board (switch, inductors, ...), something that has required months of work and redesign, and something that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has not exactly helped ...

And the 64-bit?

Raspberry PiOS

As you know, the images of official operating systems that are used by default in the Raspberry Pi 4 still use 32-bit, with extensions LPAE for the kernel, allowing to address greater amount of memory as the native 64-bit. That allows this large 8GB of memory to be shared, with the limit that a single process could not use more than 3GB. For many users, this is not a good thing, especially for heavy processes like Chrome / Chromium when using a large number of open windows simultaneously.

For those users who want to use the full 8GB space from a single process, then they need the 64-bit. For them there are already very interesting options like Ubuntu or Gentoo.

But to give you even greater joy, you should know that the Raspberry Pi Foundation has launched a Beta of your image for native 64-bit operating systems. Therefore, you can use them with this renewed Rasbperry Pi 4 and thus have all the necessary power. These new images have a new name: Raspberry PiOS. We will have to be very attentive to this new development ...

So, from now on, forget the Raspbian name, which referred to its Debian base. However, the new Raspberry PiOS it is still based on the ARM version of Debian. Nothing has changed, but they have wanted to give it this other name.

Download Raspberry Pi OS

Where to buy the 4GB Raspberry Pi 8 Model B

You can buy your SBC board now Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 8GB from the foundation's official store. It will soon be rolled out to other stores. The options that you have to acquire your plate go through:

  1. Sign in the official store.
  2. Choose the model you want and your country.
  3. Make your purchase for $ 75 (keep in mind that with Covid-19 there could be delays).

If you prefer, and you don't need 8GB, you can buy other versions with lower memory capacity for cheaper price. For example:


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