Is the Raspberry Pi 400 the perfect computer for STEM education?
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released their first desktop PC, in all-in-one unit with integrated keyboard, 64-bit processor, 4GB RAM and an affordable price of under £100.
The design of the new Raspberry Pi 400 harkens back to the first home computers from the 1980’s like the Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrums, with integrated keyboard and components. All you need to do is plug in a monitor or TV using and HDMI cable.
The Pi 400 features a version of the Raspberry Pi 4, with a quad-core ARM v8 Cortex-A72 processor and 4GB of DDR4 RAM.
The Pi 400 includes a chiclet keyboard which is both practical and comfortable, even for touch-typing.
The interface ports at the back include a pair of USB 3 ports, single USB 2 port, 2 micro-HDMI ports that can drive a pair of 4K displays, an RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port, a microSD card slot, and the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) interfacing ports.
This 40-pin interface port connector has been the basis of all Raspberry Pi’s and can be used to connect your electronics and robotics projects.
This computer is not meant to replace the raspberry Pi boards for your stand-alone projects, rather it complements then and introduces a new and more practical system for education and experimentation.
At under £100, for a fully functional desktop computer that can easily out-perform entry level computers this unit just can’t be beaten. All you need is a TV or monitor to start browsing the web, working, or streaming media.
One of the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s goals for this system is to open up the world of STEM education, and this the Pi 400 is the perfect educational tool for adults and children alike.
Specifications
- Processor: Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.8GHz
- RAM: 4GB LPDDR4-3200
- Connectivity: Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz) IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac wireless LAN, Bluetooth 5.0, BLE Gigabit Ethernet 2 × USB 3.0 and 1 × USB 2.0 ports GPIO Horizontal 40-pin GPIO header
- Video & sound: 2 × micro HDMI ports (supports up to 4Kp60)
- Multimedia: H.265 (4Kp60 decode); H.264 (1080p60 decode, 1080p30 encode); OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics
- SD card support: MicroSD card slot for operating system and data storage
- Keyboard: 78- or 79-key compact keyboard (depending on regional variant)
- Power: 5V DC via USB connector
- Operating temperature: 0°C to +50°C
- Dimensions: 286 mm × 122 mm × 23 mm (maximum)
