Raspberry Pi 2 Model B on sale now. Lots more for the same $35

[40hz]

It's got a quad-core 900Mhz ARMv7, processor, 1Gb RAM, and 4 USB slots - and the I/O ports are finally (mostly) grouped together.

Specs:

Here is the full list of specs for Raspberry Pi 2 Model B:

    SoC: Broadcom BCM2836 (CPU, GPU, DSP, SDRAM)
    CPU: 900 MHz quad-core ARM Cortex A7 (ARMv7 instruction set)
    GPU: Broadcom VideoCore IV @ 250 MHz
    More GPU info: OpenGL ES 2.0 (24 GFLOPS); 1080p30 MPEG-2 and VC-1 decoder (with license); ​1080p30 h.264/MPEG-4 AVC high-profile decoder and encoder
    Memory: 1 GB (shared with GPU)
    USB ports: 4
    Video input: 15-pin MIPI camera interface (CSI) connector
    Video outputs: HDMI, composite video (PAL and NTSC) via 3.5 mm jack
    Audio input: I²S
    Audio outputs: Analog via 3.5 mm jack; digital via HDMI and I²S
    Storage: MicroSD
    Network: 10/100Mbps Ethernet
    Peripherals: 17 GPIO plus specific functions, and HAT ID bus
    Power rating: 800 mA (4.0 W)
    Power source: 5 V via MicroUSB or GPIO header
    Size: 85.60mm × 56.5mm
    Weight: 45g (1.6 oz)

Info and order links here.

[KynloStephen66515]

This looks beyond awesome!...We are just talking about that in #donationcoder

[4wd]

Now if they could have added h.265^w decoding in silicon ...

[40hz]

This looks beyond awesome!...We are just talking about that in #donationcoder

-Stephen66515 (February 02, 2015, 04:57 PM)

Cool! - I'll cross reference it in my OP above and direct people there to keep it all in one place.

[KynloStephen66515]

This looks beyond awesome!...We are just talking about that in #donationcoder

-Stephen66515 (February 02, 2015, 04:57 PM)

Cool! - I'll cross reference it in my OP above and direct people there to keep it all in one place.

-40hz (February 02, 2015, 07:14 PM)

Erm, that wasn't a thread haha, that's the link to the chat room   Sorry if I wasn't clear on that haha 

[KynloStephen66515]

Gotta admit...I am HUGELY tempted to buy a batch of these to cluster together (Maybe 10-16 of them in total), and run Windows 10 on them...would be a sweet little supercomputer to have at home xD

[40hz]

This looks beyond awesome!...We are just talking about that in #donationcoder

-Stephen66515 (February 02, 2015, 04:57 PM)

Cool! - I'll cross reference it in my OP above and direct people there to keep it all in one place.

-40hz (February 02, 2015, 07:14 PM)

Erm, that wasn't a thread haha, that's the link to the chat room  Sorry if I wasn't clear on that haha  

-Stephen66515 (February 03, 2015, 02:06 AM)

Fixed. 

[40hz]

Gotta admit...I am HUGELY tempted to buy a batch of these to cluster together (Maybe 10-16 of them in total), and run Windows 10 on them...would be a sweet little supercomputer to have at home xD

-Stephen66515 (February 03, 2015, 02:09 AM)

Out of curiosity, how would you implement it? Using Arch Linux as a base and setting up a Beowulf Cluster seems to be what most are doing. But it may not be a panacea. I've heard that one of the limitations for clustering with the Pi is the lack of power in the CPU. So while it worked rather well for some distributed processing scenarios, parallel processing cases didn't work out quite so well. Maybe with the faster ARMv7 and that additional RAM it will be less an issue?

Another consideration - the roughly $2k (all in) you'd need to budget to do it right would allow you to build a bumpin' PC with a high-end i7 and a ton of RAM. With that machine you could run VMs until the cows come home. So it might be more practical for normal PC use if you don't actually need a render farm or similar non-mainstream environment. Because unless your app supports distributed processing, having a cluster won't get you anything.

Still...it would be fun to build one purely for esthetics...

[Deozaan]

Just for reference, this was mentioned here:

Raspberry Pi 2 out now; includes support for Windows 10

[KynloStephen66515]

I don't actually know what I would use it for tbh.  A little home render farm would be fantastic for 3D design and such (Both me and my Father-in-law both dabble in it so it would be useful for both of us, especially if I made the farm portable!)

 

[Deozaan]

A little home render farm would be fantastic for 3D design and such ([...] especially if I made the farm portable!)

-Stephen66515 (February 04, 2015, 11:58 AM)

Or your own little render farm in the cloud. (c:

[40hz]

I don't actually know what I would use it for tbh.  A little home render farm would be fantastic for 3D design and such (Both me and my Father-in-law both dabble in it so it would be useful for both of us, especially if I made the farm portable!)

 

-Stephen66515 (February 04, 2015, 11:58 AM)

Blender has some very nice support for distributed processing built into it. And if you google "blender distributed proccessing" or "DIY render farm" you'll find dozens of how-to articles that will walk you through building and using one. Most don't use Raspberry Pis. But it's fairly easy to extrapolate and improvise.

Be interesting to see how much gain you'd see over a tricked out workstation with a high power i7 or Xeon instead. Or the more typical homebrew render farm which seems to favor $$$ Xeons and $$ server mobos.