Raspberry Pi 4 has been released

Development Discussion
#1

The Raspberry Pi 4 has been released, despite us not expecting a 2019 release.

This upgraded Raspberry Pi replaces the BCM2837 SoC with a newer SoC, the BCM2711, which replaces the four ARM Cortex A53 cores of the BCM2837 with four Cortex A72 cores, clocked at 1.5GHz.

There are 2GB and 4GB RAM options, and, you guessed it, the 4GB RAM model is more expensive. But the Pi 4 should definitely be a good PC replacement, which is why it deserves a good PC OS too.

I'm looking at Ubuntu here because the Ubuntu MATE image for the Raspberry Pi provides almost the same experience as the desktop image does. Hopefully, when Ubuntu add Pi 4 support to the linux-raspi2 kernel and release an update to linux-firmware-raspi2 updating the bootloader files, the Ubuntu MATE team could look at adding Pi 4 support to their Raspberry Pi image now or in the next release while continuing to use the Ubuntu-provided kernel.

2 Likes
#2

I've been waiting a long time for this update! Loving the gigabit ethernet and the higher memory options.

I'm also looking forward to running MATE on it. I'm guessing that'll be in a 19.10 release?

#3

Not an official post but I can assure you that the Ubuntu MATE team will look into supporting the Pi 4.

#4

What are they waiting before putting an 8 core CPU? Any good cellphone has it! For desktop applications muscle power is more limiting than RAM (IMHO).

#5

Hello

During the Ubuntu podcast from Thursday, 4th July 2019, @Wimpy said he plans to release a version of Ubuntu-Mate for this device. He did not indicate a timeline, saying that his difficulty would be finding the time to do the work involved.

This would be a good time for all Ubuntu-Mate-on-the-pi users to thank this very hard working man - and all the other Ubuntu-Mate users too. :clap: :clap: :clap::smiley: :penguin:

1 Like
#6

Thanks for the update! I'd certainly be willing to help out if needed, once I get the Pi.