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It's Pi day: Care to stuff a brand new Raspberry one in your wallet?

Would ma'am care to supersize her order with an extra 200MHz of 64-bit Arm CPU?

It is Pi day (assuming you live in a country that insists on writing dates in the frankly barking mad MM/DD format) and after a quiet two years, the Raspberry Pi Foundation have pushed out a new version of the tiny computer.

In news guaranteed to bring joy to hobbyists and nerds the world over, the $35 Model 3 B+ now features a 64-bit 1.4GHz quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 system-on-chip, up from 1.2GHz in the previous incarnation. The SoC is a Broadcom part: the BCM2837B0. It is wired to 1GB of RAM.

The new chipset also features improved wireless performance, with a doubling of data rates in the 5GHz band.

In a nod to FCC compliance, the radio circuitry is now covered by a metal shield, which allows the Pi team to have the entire device classified as a radio module. Industrial users will be delighted with the reduction in conformance testing the modification will bring.

Gigabit Ethernet makes in appearance on the board, resulting in another leap in network performance from the 100Mbit/s on the older model.

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Power over Ethernet (PoE) is supported, with an add-on planned that will allow the 5V needed to power the Pi to be slurped from the PoE supply. Sadly, the module will need a tiny fan to keep things cool.

Finally, improved power management should result in better sustained performance, with the CPU running at 1.4GHz below 70°C before dropping to 1.2GHz as things heat up. The team expects that this limit is unlikely to be reached by the majority of users.

Without increasing the price of a Pi, the Foundation has maintained its long tradition of making enthusiasts very, very happy (judging by the excited fangirl and fanboi squeaking on Twitter and Reddit) as well as reassuring industrial clients which prefer stability to shiny that the old models will remain in production.

The computer is available to buy now, although the links page to suppliers is currently having a bit of a lie-down (what's new) as fans relieve themselves of two years of pent up excitement. ®

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