Raspberry Pi 3, the third generation Raspberry Pi which essentially replaced the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B in February 2016, is now shipping for just $35. Compared to the Raspberry Pi 2, the new device has:

• A 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU (~10x the performance of Raspberry Pi 1)
• 802.11n Wireless LAN
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)

For Raspberry Pi 3, Broadcom have supported the Raspberry Foundation with a new SoC, BCM2837. This retains the same basic architecture as its predecessors BCM2835 and BCM2836, so all those projects and tutorials which rely on the precise details of the Raspberry Pi hardware will continue to work. The 900MHz 32-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU complex has been replaced by a custom-hardened 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53. Combining a 33% increase in clock speed with various architectural enhancements, this provides a 50-60% increase in performance in 32-bit mode versus Raspberry Pi 2, or roughly a factor of ten over the original Raspberry Pi.

Like the Pi 2, it also has:

• 4 USB ports
• 40 GPIO pins
• Full HDMI port
• Ethernet port
• Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video
• Camera interface (CSI)
• Display interface (DSI)
• Micro SD card slot (now push-pull rather than push-push)
• VideoCore IV 3D graphics core

The Pi 3 has an identical form factor to the previous Pi 2 (and Pi 1 Model B+) and has complete compatibility with Raspberry Pi 1 and 2. It runs a Broadcom VideoCore IV 3D graphics processor that can play 1080p video at 60 frames per second, and has 40 GPIO pins, and display and camera interfaces.

The Raspberry Pi 3 is compatible with Microsoft's Windows 10 IoT Core OS and flavors of Linux including Ubuntu.

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B can be used in schools, or for any general use. Those wishing to embed their Pi in a project may prefer the Pi Zero or Model A+, which are more useful for embedded projects, and projects which require very low power.

Raspberry Pi 3 is available to buy today from element14 and RS Components, and other resellers.