6

I can't find much about this new PI yet

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/02/raspberry_pi_model_2/ http://raspberry.piaustralia.com.au/products/raspberry-pi-2-model-b

They talk about the ports being physically compatible with the B+, but how many software changes will be needed?

Improve this question
1
  • Looking around it seems ARMv7 is backward compatible w/ ARMv6, so normal binaries will work -- if you still want to use raspbian you probably can. Dunno about the more processor specific stuff such as wiringPi, since those aren't just the instruction set but use explicit hardware addresses (maybe I'm confused about this...).
    – goldilocks ♦
    Feb 2, 2015 at 12:37

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
5

Assuming the following is true (which seems highly likely)

...

Fortunately for us, Broadcom were willing to step up with a new SoC, BCM2836. This retains all the features of BCM2835, but replaces the single 700MHz ARM11 with a 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 complex: everything else remains the same, so there is no painful transition or reduction in stability.

...

It should be compatible with all the existing Pi software but will also be usable with WIndows 10 and more modern Linux distributions such as the latest Ubuntu. For strike out text reason see second edit.

Until it gets on the streets we're all in the dark.

EDITED TO ADD

Unfortunately it looks like all the register addresses have changed.

The peripherals base address for previous (ARMv6) models was 0x20000000. The new (ARMv7) model seems to have a peripherals base address of 0x3F000000.

This will break all the existing low level C libraries (wiringPi, bcm2835, pigpio), bare-metal programs, and any code which directly accesses the peripherals.

If this is the extent of the changes it is fairly trivial to fix.

However it's hard to reconcile this change with the statement that no changes are required.

EDITED TO ADD

I was wrong to suggest that Windows 10 or Ubuntu will work on the Pi 2. There will be no support for the desktop versions. What is being touted is Internet of Things versions which are CLI (Command Line Interface) based and are aimed a servers.

Improve this answer
2
  • It is on the streets ;) Using ARMv7-A is a big step as the vanilla kernel supports that and the major distros already have ports. As apparently does MS, which makes sense -- this is the same architecture used on most phones and tablets (and the pi competitors). But what do you think this will mean for pigpio, wiringPi, etc? Will this make a difference to that stuff?
    – goldilocks ♦
    Feb 2, 2015 at 12:29
  • It should make no difference to wiringPi and the bcm2385 C libraries. It should make no difference to pigpio. However pigpio makes more use of specialised features of the hardware so it is most likely to be affected of the C libraries. It's a question of suck it and see (or make/make install and see).
    – joan
    Feb 2, 2015 at 12:57
0

GPIO Pins are backward compatible with the B+ (40 pins) and B model (26 pins) so most additional hardware should work

Improve this answer
0

So far, Kali, from Offensive Security has released the only operating system specifically designed to exploit all the additional power of the new chip, and can now create a LUKS encrypted, NUKE capable Kali Linux image for Raspberry Pi devices. SuperQuick as well!

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.