Raspberry Pi Unveils the Pico 2, Powered by the Twin-Structure Quad-Core RP2350

Raspberry Pi has introduced a follow-up to its smash-hit RP2040 dual-core microcontroller, within the type of the quad-core dual-architecture RP2350 — and a shiny new Raspberry Pi Pico 2 to function a quick-start improvement platform.

“Raspberry Pi Pico 2 is our new $5 microcontroller board, constructed on RP2350: our new high-performance, safe microcontroller,” the corporate says of its newest launch. “With the next core clock velocity, double the on-chip SRAM, double the on-board flash reminiscence, extra highly effective Arm cores, optionally available RISC-V cores, new security measures, and upgraded interfacing capabilities, Raspberry Pi Pico 2 delivers a big efficiency and have enhance, whereas retaining {hardware} and software program compatibility with earlier members of the Raspberry Pi Pico sequence.”

Formally, the Raspberry Pi RP2350 is a “dual-core” half, however there are 4 processor cores current on the chip: two 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33 cores working at 150MHz, a lift over the Cortex-M0+ cores of the unique RP2040, together with two 32-bit RISC-V cores based mostly on the free and open supply Hazard3 design. The trick: the microcontroller is not designed to have all 4 cores working directly; as a substitute, customers are anticipated to select between the Cortex-M33 or Hazard3 cores relying on their use-case, or — optionally — run one among every with shared reminiscence entry.

The brand new microcontroller additionally boasts 520kB of on-chip static RAM (SRAM), nearly twice that of the RP2040, although nonetheless no on-chip flash; the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 comes with 4MB of on-board quad-SPI flash consequently, whereas the chip itself helps as much as 16MB with an optionally available chip-select providing assist for an additional 16MB of flash or pseudo-static SRAM (PSRAM).

There are 26 3.3V-logic 5V-tolerant general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) pins introduced out to castellated 0.1″ headers, together with two every of UART, SPI, and I2C buses, a USB 1.1 controller and PHY supporting each host and machine operation, and 12 programmable enter/output (PIO) state machines. 4 of the 26 pins are linked to an analog to digital converter (ADC), whereas there are 24 pulse-width modulation (PWM) channels accessible. The USB port, for information and energy, stays a micro-USB connector, for causes of backwards-compatibility.

Raspberry Pi is making a lot of recent security measures within the RP2350, too, which implements Arm’s TrustZone for Cortex-M to supply signed boot, 8kB of one-time programmable reminiscence for key storage, a {hardware} true random quantity generator (TRNG), {hardware} mitigations in opposition to fault injection assaults, and SHA-256 acceleration.

“These options, together with the safe boot ROM, are extensively documented and accessible to all customers with out restriction,” the corporate says. “This clear method, which contrasts with the ‘safety by way of obscurity’ supplied by legacy distributors, permits skilled customers to combine RP2350, and Raspberry Pi Pico 2, into merchandise with confidence.”

As with the sooner RP2040 and the unique Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico W boards, the RP2350 on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 may be programmed utilizing both the official C/C++ software program improvement package (SDK) or Raspberry Pi’s port of MicroPython. Some options, like a brand new built-in high-speed transmission (HSTX) peripheral that goals to ship DVI/DSI show assist with out tying up the CPU cores or PIO blocks, could solely be accessible by way of the C/C++ SDK at launch.

Engineer Dmitry Grinberg has printed ideas on the RP2350, after working with the machine in secret over the previous yr — and having developed the firmware for the DEFCON 32 badge, which is powered by the chip. “It looks as if I acquired nearly all of my needs granted with RP2350,” he writes.

“[The Arm CPU] overclocks insanely effectively,” Grinberg continues. “I’ve been working the machine at 300MHz in all of my initiatives with no points in any respect! Now you can use the FIFOs as reminiscence, randomly studying and writing them, permitting all types of wicked-cool PIO equipment that beforehand was not doable as a consequence of lack of sufficient temporaries. DMA can now do infinite transfers with no need to waste one other channel. QSPI PSRAM is supported!”

The Raspberry Pi Pico 2 is obtainable to order from approved resellers at $5 in individual-unit pricing; for manufacturing use, 480-unit reel portions can be found. Pricing for the RP2350 chip by itself, which is obtainable in two footprints the biggest of which provides 48 GPIO pins, 24 PWM channels, and eight ADCs, had not been introduced on the time of writing, however the firm has confirmed plans to launch a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W with built-in radio module by the tip of the yr.

Raspberry Pi has confirmed variants of the chip which embody stacked flash reminiscence, making exterior flash pointless for the primary time within the chip household’s historical past: the 60-pin RP2350A and 80-pin RP2350B are each accessible in RP2354A and RP2354B variants, which embody a 2MB flash die stacked on high. Extra info is obtainable on the Raspberry Pi web site.