The tiniest Raspberry Pi – the $5 Pico 2 – gets a big performance boost

The Raspberry Pi Pico gets a performance boost with the release of the Pico 2, which brings with it the power of the RP2350 microprocessor.

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Raspberry Pi Pico 2 Specifications

CPU: Dual Arm Cortex-M33 or dual RISC-V Hazard3 processors @ 150MHz
Memory: 520 KB on-chip SRAM; 4 MB on-board QSPI flash
Interfacing: 26 multi-purpose GPIO pins, including four that can be used for ADC
Peripherals:
2 × UART
2 × SPI controllers
2 × I2C controllers
24 × PWM channels
1 × USB 1.1 controller and PHY, with host and device support
12 × PIO state machines
Input power: 1.8-5.5V DC
Operating temperature: -20°C to +85°C
Production lifetime: Raspberry Pi Pico 2 will remain in production until at least January 2040

The RP2350 is an all-new microprocessor that packs quite some punch, featuring dual Arm Cortex-M33 cores running at 150 MHz and dual 32-bit RISC-V Hazard3 cores running at 150 MHz. As such, the RP2350 supports both Arm and RISC-V processor architectures. 

This is backed up by 520 KB on-chip SRAM, and the chip is built with security in mind, making use of Arm TrustZone for Cortex-M.

As for the rest of the Pico 2, there’s 4MB of eMMC flash, a micro USB port for power and programming, and the same GPIO headers found in the original Pico.

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Raspberry Pi Pico 2 is available as an individual unit, or as a bandoleer of 480 units. Longevity won’t be a problem: There’s a commitment to keep the model in production until at least January 2040, giving it a minimum life cycle of 16 years. 

As for pricing, the Pico 2 comes in at $5 before taxes and shipping, which is one dollar more than the first-generation Raspberry Pi Pico.