The original Raspberry Pi Pico was Raspberry Pi’s successful entry into the world of microcontrollers, with its own in-house developed RP2040 chip. The Pico was really popular among embedded developers and electronics enthusiasts for its price and versatility.
Almost four years after the release of the original Pico, The Raspberry Pi Foundation released the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 with a brand new RP2350 microcontroller chip.
In this post we will have a look at what has changed with the new Pico 2, go through all the important specs, and compare it to its predecessor.
Keep reading to find out more!
What are the changes in the Pico 2?
Feature
RPI Pico 2
RPI Pico
The RP2350 Microcontroller Chip - More Power and Security!
In the Raspberry Pi Pico 2, the RP2040 is replaced by Raspberry Pi’s new RP2350 chip. Compared to the older chip, the RP2350 now offers two Arm Cortex-M33 cores or two RISC-V Hazard3 cores, instead of two Arm Cortex-M0+ cores.
Note that only two of these cores can be used simultaneously. For instance, you can use one of the Cortex-M33 cores and one of the RISC-V cores.
In terms of SRAM, the RP2350 doubles the specs of its predecessor. Instead of 264KB we now get 520KB!
Also new are various security features, like a secure boot function, an Arm TrustZone, and an 8KB On-Time-Programmable memory, which can store and work with critical information like API keys for example.
Upgraded Flash Storage
Just like the SRAM, also the flash storage of the Pico 2 has been doubled from 2MB QSPI to 4MB QSPI, which allows us to upload bigger programs and more data.
Hardware True Random Number Generation
Another feature of the new Pico 2 is a true random number generator (TRNG) to generate truly random numbers instead of seed-based pseudo random number generation.
Power Consumption
One of the Pico’s biggest flaws is its power consumption, making it difficult to run it from a battery. Even in deep sleep, the original Pico consumes milliamperes instead of microamperes like some of its competitors.
Raspberry Pi knew about this problem and lowered the power consumption for the Pico 2. Now it consumes less power in idle and deep sleep mode.
What Does The Raspberry Pi Pico 2 Cost?
Like the first Pico, the Pico 2 will be priced at just 5$, making it very affordable for embedded developers and hobbyists.
Raspberry Pi Pico 2 Pinout and Dimensions
The Pico 2 is designed to be a drop-in replacement for the original Pico. All the pins and dimensions are exactly the same.
Besides the cost effect, the Micro-USB port wasn’t upgraded to USB-C to keep the same dimensions and allow for an easy swap between the different Pico models.
Will there be a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W with WiFi?
As of November 25th, 2024, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has officially announced the wireless version of the Raspberry Pi Pico 2. It will be priced at 7$.
Different from the original Pico W, the Pico 2 W now supports 2.4GHz 802.11n wireless LAN AND Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity from the beginning.
All the specs concerning power, energy consumption, dimensions, and pinout are the same as in the standard Pico 2.
Conclusion
All in all, the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 takes everything that was good about the original Pico, improves some of the flaws it had, and adds more power as wells as some new features like a true random number generation and an Arm TrustZone with secure boot.
Conveniently, the pinout and the dimension of the pico 2 have stayed the same, making it a perfect drop-in replacement for the previous pico.
Recommended read: How to program the Raspberry Pi Pico with the Arduino IDE
Consider sharing this post and writing a comment if you still have any questions about the brand new Pico 2!
