Upgraded Raspberry Pi 4 now offers up to 8GB of RAM

Raspberry Pi 4 fans can get an upgraded version that just launched that offers up to 8GB of RAM. With the additional RAM version, the Pi 4 can now be had with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of RAM. The Pi 4 is almost a year old and has sold 3 million units so far. Over the nearly 12 months since launch, there have been a couple of minor board revisions.

The rumored 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 is now available and costs $75. The 2GB version of the same board sells for $35. The BCM2711 chip used on the Raspberry Pi 4 can address up to 16GB of LPDDR4 SDRAM. The developers behind the board say that the barrier to offering the larger-memory version was the lack of an 8GB LPDDR4 package.

Pi.org says that its partners at Micron unveiled a suitable part earlier this year. The Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GB of RAM is available right now. Eben Upton from Raspberrypi.org wrote, "If you're a power user, intending to compile and link large pieces of software or run heavy server workloads, or you simply want to be able to have even more browser tabs open at once, this is definitely the Raspberry Pi for you."

There are a few other changes that were required to supply the higher peak currents required by the new memory package. The power supply components had to be changed around on the board, removing a switch-mode power supply from the right-hand side of the board next to the USB 2.0 sockets. A new switch resided next to the USB-C power connector. The team says that was a necessary change, but it cost them a three-month delay thanks to the coronavirus pandemic disrupting the supply of inductors from Asia. Power users who want to be able to map all 8GB into the address space of a single process will need to use a 64-bit operating system. Raspberry Pi unveiled a new high-quality camera not long ago.