Model B now ships with 512MB of RAM

Yeah! Now I’m REALLY happy that RS added another 2 month to the shipping.

;)

I just canceled my order at RS, and two days later the pi was in my post :-)

Canceled my order 1 month ago and still refunds or raspberry in sight!
(ordered at RS; 10 weeks predicted for delivery, canceled after waiting 13 weeks)
All i have to say: This was my last ordering at RS!!!

… still refunds … –>
… still NO refunds …

While Farnell was able to ship in time, RS has been a huge disappointment. At least I received the refund in time.

If you are in USA try AdaFruit Industries. Lady Ada is on top of things with her business and while she does run out of stock fast, she gets more stock fairly quickly. I logged in August and placed my name on a waiting list. Two weeks later the board was in and I ordered it using regular mail. It came in less than a week via USPS! (I live on the west coast of the USA and her business is on the east coast).

Think it’s just highly depending on available stock. The first Pi ordered from Farnell arrived within a few days, but waiting several weeks for the second one now. So I’m not sure it’s fair to blame the distributors nor factory/org. Demand is just enormous.

too bad 512mb was not with the release of the rpi :(
but still nice work

It wouldn’t have been remotely affordable to use 512MB back when we started manufacture – happily, it is now!

Just a suggestion, but considering the number of Pi’s already out in the wild do you think it might be worth organising some sort of “trade-in” scheme so people can upgrade to the 512Mb version while at the same time giving their old version to a school or charity at a reduced cost?

Something like instead of $35, pay $20 and trade in your old Pi (so the school effectively gets it for $15)?

I like this idea, even if the discount was a small one.

Would any schools want the old ones though? In my experience they most likely won’t.

I respect your idea but I think it’s a mess.
Best you sell, give away to someone else and buy a new one.
We’re talking about $ 35 I do not think it is a waste .. ;-)

Good point, there will be quite a few 256mb boards popping up on ebay now there is an upgraded model.

Definitely need some kind of incentive scheme there. Right now all I can see this doing is causing a massive split in the userbase for those of us with the now “outdated” Pi. After a little over 6 months this is not particularly appreciated. How long until the distro’s start to only account for easier to fit 512Mb models and we no longer have up-to-date software available?

Or better still, take it to your local school and donate it.

By that logic, computer makers should never release new computers. Technology moves fast, 6 months is actually pretty good for a low-power device. Think of how fast your phone becomes obsolete after you buy it. My previous phone was obsolete *when* I bought it.

For those with an original Model B, you can get more RAM here [spammy link removed by mod: we suspect this was meant as a joke, but don’t do it again!] ;)

you scumbag

How about you take your SPAM elsewhere…

It worked wonders for me on my early Pi!

Does this void my warranty? O_o; the price is right though

I think I’ll wait until there is a downloadable processor upgrade.

Oops…

Shame on you, mods! That was a good joke.

I totally agree. I can only assume the link was to download more RAM or something like that :P

I got to the link before the Mods did, and clicked through. It was a highly amusing web site which looked remarkably like a RAM for sale type of place, but if you looked at the prices, they were all £0.00.

Clicking on the link to “download 4GB of RAM” gave another page, and a “downloading in progress-o-meter”.

So, yes, the page was a joke and anyone shouting “spam” didn’t actually bother to read anything at all. After all, how on earth can you *download* extra RAM for your computer?

HTH

Cheers,
Norm.

It was; I thought it was funny too — no idea how someone could see a joke advertisement for a joke product that costs £0 and does nothing, and think “this person is using dodgy tactics to try and make a profit!” :P

Bait and switch….what has the internet come to =P

While more is usually better, I really hope this doesn’t lead to a situation where early adopters can only run half the software released for the PI. I like(d) that the hardware is uniform (much like with early home computers). It’s a challenge for developers. Which imho is good.

Because Linux can use swap, software that runs in 512 should still run with 256, albeit using swap space, and therefore running more slowly. There may be some apps that just require a huge amount of RAM on tap, but they are few. It won’t be like the BBC A vs B or Spectrum 16 vs 48.

If that’s anything like swap on Windows, it still would qualify as “not able to run” :).

It depends on where your swap is stored – but if it’s at a semi-decent storage, it’ll be not noticable.

SD card though? Yes, that’s going to hurt.

And afaik SD is the only option right now, right? On the RPi?

Oh well, I’d been thinking about getting a second one anyway, this seems like the perfect time to do so. :)

Roy,

you can always attach a HDD and put the entire system including true swap partition there.

I’m successfully using a 1.8” HDD this way :-).

Thomas

USB driver still has issues so I doubt if you can run OS from it.

You can. Several people, including me, do so.

I’m running with root on NFS and swap on a 2GB USB dongle.

Unfortunately, swap over NBD is unstable (but the 3.7 kernel apparently has a fix in it somewhere).

Swap over nbd is crapy indeed but so is nbd in general, use iscsi instead that would just run fine and smoothly including swap.

Agree with you on “Challenge being good”, Roy.

Given that most of the people writing software for the PI will be the early adopters with their 256Mb, I’d like to think that PI-specific software will work fine for you (and me) with our 256Mb models. I learned to program writing engineering simulation software on an Acorn Atom with 12k of memory, and later on worked professionally with some old kit with even less.

I’m guessing the biggest opportunity afforded by 512Mb is to port existing memory-hungry applications like browsers and games onto the Pi. But to be honest, if people want to get into that space, it’s easy enough to install Ubuntu or Fedora onto an old PC.

Well done to the foundation for giving so much fun to so many people for so little financial outlay.

I hate when this happens. Just bought an R-Pi with only 256 :(

exactly the same, I just received the “good old” with 256MB…

You received the “ORIGINAL” version with 256Mb. Use-it then keep-it. Lots of Apple I users were dissapointed when Apple II started shipping. ;-)

And how much now for an Apple I …. £100k
or an original Sinclair ZX80 …. £200

Those very few hundred Apple 1 users were probably not disappointed, since the Apple ][ was a completely different (fully assembled) product. Some of those were probably never even put together. In fact, the original Apple 1 did not come with a keyboard or display or case or anything – a lot like the Raspberry Pi, really.

I’ve bought over 20. No regrets. They are still good for the intended use, and I like making my students try hard at being efficient.

a couple of hours ago I ordered my 1st 256mb version.probably I will get one 512mb after 1-3 months from the time I receive the one I ordered!

This would always have happened no matter when the switch was made. I can understand that some may feel cheated but there just was no good solution.

I’d like to say that I’m happy with my 256MB and I’m not at all bothered by the upgrade. My Pi works perfectly well as it is.

I’m waiting for my Gertboard to arrive though – can’t wait to see if I have the skill and eye-sight to do surface mount!

Cheers,
Norm.

I, on the other hand, feel cheated!

Hi Jean,

I can sort of see how you might feel a little cheated, but why? Like me, you presumably ordered a Model B with 256 Mb of RAM? And is that not what you have received?

When I bought my Sinclair ZX-81, they came down in price. When I bought a Spectrum, then came down in price. My Interface 1 did likewise.

When I wanted a QL, I waited for them to come down in price, and they did, so I bought one. The next week, they were at the same price, but with a free printer!

My Plasma TV stayed at the same price for ages, so I bought it. A month later, they were a couple of hundred cheaper.

My wife has the same problem with buying clothes, it happens, life goes on. How long do you wait before buying something? It makes no difference, there will always be a bigger, better, cheaper version just around the corner.

My Pi still works fine with 256 – I assume yours does too? So where’s the problem?

Cheers,
Norm.

Jean, why cheated? The 256meg R Pi you purchased and now own still does everything it always did. The arrival of the 512 model does not reduce the functionality of the original.

I own three 256 models, and I’m as happy as I was two days ago. No change.

I just hope this doesn’t lead to fragmentation with “slack” programmers coding to the 512 footprint and leaving 256 owners with memory shortages.

No sooner did I post that, than Farnell send out an email, my Gertboard has dispatched!
Hurry up postie, hurry up!

Cheers,
Norm.

Life… Stuff changes. I have 2 RPi’s, both Rev 1 boards but different … ECN0002 and a ECN0003… slight changes between the two, but they are purposed for different tasks. After all they are ONLY $35! All of them are useful to me incl the new 512 on the way

Although I like the fact the new ones have 512MB I really wish mine did :(

buy another

Just bought an R-Pi with only 256Mb :(
Is not right !!!

Have you received it yet? Or just on order, in which case you will probably get a 512.

Indeed – if anyone has ordered and not yet received their Pi, they’ll be getting a 512MB one.

Even more disappointing is that I got my today and it only has 256 Mb. :( And by the away “(Despatch expected within 10 week(s))” is not true. got my 30 days after the promised “10 weeks”

But you ordered the 256MB model…

Are all 512MB pi’s rev.2 boards?

It only cost £30 though.

Good point, people can always buy another one.

But then people will give another bunch of blame when the rev. 2 is out, just a few months after you got hte 512MB version. ;)

ahhh, just have my pi for about a week, after doubting some months, now i wish i would have doubted a little longer :S

Why is it not right? Didn’t you bought and payed for a R-Pi with 256MB? Did you got one with 128MB? Or what else was not to the specs. you looked at on the device you got?

If all is not worse that the specs. you payed for, it is all right, but you got a bit unlucky. But that will always be like this when you buy computers, next semester there will be better with same or lower price. Look up Moore’s law on why it’s so.

You should be happy that the device get better. And the next you buy will have that extra 256 MB ram or even more.

Woohoo!

Oh, my Pi arrived less than a week ago. Moore’s law giving a kicking, I guess.

Same here, my raspi arrived last friday. :(

This has nothing to do with Moore’s law.

Since moore’s law actually states that the complexity doubles every 12 – 24 months this is actually more to do with moore’s law than if the processing speed had doubled.

So _this_ is what Apple users feel like when a new iPhone is announced… ;)

Wish my Pi came with more memory too, but that’s computers floor you. As far as iPhones. I know my shiny new iPhone 5 will be replaced next year, no surprise. If you are surprised your iPhone is updated every year, or a surprise update on your Pi for instance, better to avoid buying the technology to start with.

But I’m not buying (and getting charged) the new iPhone, waiting for it about 5 month, and a week later, it’s already old stuff.

That sucks!!!

You ordered a 256 Mb device, paid for a 256 Mb device and received a 256 Mb device.

What about those people who paid for 256 and got 512? they’re just rubbing it in everyone’s faces at this point

First: Congratulations on being able to supply model B Raspberries with 512MB RAM. As I see it, there shouldn’t be a situation where “early adopters can only run half the software released for the PI”, rather that the increased headroom will allow the Pi to run software more effectively.

Way back in the mists of time, when the model A/B specifications were released, it was disclosed that the model A would ship with 128MB RAM and the model B with 256MB. Later, when the B started shipping (I think), it was announced that the A would get 256MB as well as this would make the production of both in parallel more efficient.

Now the B is to be supplied with 512MB, will the A also get the increased memory allocation, or will it preserve the original A/B memory split and come with 256MB when it arrives “sometime before Christmas”?

The Model A will be 256MB when it ships.

That seriously sucks !! I got mine last week after waiting for it for almost half a year and now you’re telling me it’s five days too early for a free RAM upgrade ?
I’m sending it back … that’s not how you treat customers !

[Mod edit for language], Philipp

“that’s not how you treat customers !”

Heh, entitled much? Getting what you paid for and still complaining is so cute. I like that about humans. It shows our monkey heritage and basic evolutionary resentment :)

Thanks for making me smile today

Wrong. It’s a gamble what you’re getting for your money. Place your pre-order a few days later and get a lot more hardware – who would have pre-ordered if he knew that ? 512mb Raspberrys will soon become the standard for software packages and 256mb models might not be able to run certain software in the future. Why not announce this a bit earlier and give customers a choice ? I could have waited another week or more .. Anyway, sending it back and ordering a new one. I would be a lot less disappointed if this wasn’t announced on the day I unboxed the Raspberry Pi I was waiting for so long. Finally there and already outdated ….

Does that work with iPhones and cars and [insert consumer product here] too? I should try that some time.

Cars and iPhones are great examples – in both cases you know that something new is coming. This change here was a big surprise and affects a decision I made 3 months ago. You’re not telling me that new ORDERS will be 512mb but new deliveries for orders places months ago will be 512mb. That’s just random …

Bad example. One does not usually wait 6 months for those products you mentioned.

Loosing a lot of karma points on that one!

Under the distance selling regulations, yes it does work.

Absolutely right!

You ordered a 256 Mb device, paid for a 256 Mb device and received a 256 Mb device.
As you mentioned “gamble” – let me guess – every time you buy a lottery ticket and is not a winning one you deman a refund ?

psergui, while I don’t agree with Philipp, I do think that those are entirely distinct scenarios. This, actually, is a good point. The upgrade was unexpected and unpredictable. When I buy a lottery ticket, I am clearly and obviously acknowledging the element of chance. When I buy an iPhone, I know that they will come out with new ones, though I don’t know when.

I don’t think, however, that anybody expected that this sort of thing might happen.

You want to know a secret? Wait another year and maybe they will put 1GB. If I were you I would wait, I mean you never know right?

Well, you do know that you’re not going to get 1GB. Unless they start manufacturing 1GB LPDDR2 chips.. :P

I’m also very concerned about the memory being below 1GB. I read the interesting comment by Rob Bishop just now, and did a search. According to this article, the iPhone 5 uses dual 512 LPDDR2 to combine into 1GB RAM: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6297/iphone-5-memory-size-and-speed-revealed-1gb-lpddr21066

It would definitely be great to have 1GB for desktops like Ubuntu. I’m not sure that a $45 RPi model C would be so terrible, would it?

We only have one chip select on the Broadcom SoC so are limited to a single LPDDR2 chip. Hence the limitation to 512MB as there are no single chip 1GB alternatives.

“Well, you do know that you’re not going to get 1GB. Unless they start manufacturing 1GB LPDDR2 chips.. ”

You asked?
http://www.hynix.com/mail/sub04.html

Oh my god they released a 512MB version and it doesn’t cost more money? And moreover, people who have an order in place get the new one instead of the 256MB verison? I really understand you are pissed off now. Wait, no, I don’t. But your reaction rembers me of that story in the bible(though I don’t care about religion), you know, Jesus gives all people the same money for different work and they behave like you :) Oh and by the way I’m using the ‘old’ one and I’m far away from needing >256MB. As long as the developers watch that it’s ok.

Does this mean that if I wait another eight months I can get a 1GB model?

Ha! No. :)

But maybe you’ll have a model with properly working USB by then.

Bitchy. There’s always some snide commenter who wants to pee on good news. Do you enjoy not being able to ‘let go’?

For others listening. The USB problems are mostly sorted – still some issues in certain circumstances. Most people won’t see a problem.

I was just stating a fact. “Mostly sorted”? That’s debatable. Webcams are totally broken still and anything else that uses isochronous transfers, such as audio interfaces, do not work as well as they should.

Happily, we’ve got developers working on it, and we’re confident it’ll be fixed soon (I’m sure you’ve notice the enormous improvements they’ve made already). But please continue to contribute with charm and grace; Monday mornings are made so much sunnier for us by attitudes of well-mannered elegance like yours.

Odd, I’ve sure I’ve seen people having some success with webcams.

Funny – me too. This blog’s larded with examples.

@stuart. Can you please stop acting like the shortened version of your surname?! Have you any idea how hard these people worked to get you a $35 computer?! What have YOU contributed to society lately? I laud them for being able to double the memory without adding to the price. I’m happy I didn’t cancel my second order through RS, as I just got confirmation that it will be a Rev2. Excitedness!!!

Ha! You say that now. ;)

Liz, you have wonderful comebacks, awesome stuff…keep up the good work :p

I don’t think anyone takes the comments of that grumpy guy seriously. If 256 MiB of RAM was enough for the application you had in mind back when you ordered it will still suffice today, right?

I for my part am loving my 256 MiB Model B. I prefer having a Pi to play with than waiting for an updated version.

Please? 1GB would be amazing even though I understand it probably won’t happen.

Liz wrote: “Ha! No. :)”

Is that “No, the POP doesn’t have enough address pins so it is physically impossible”, or “No, we don’t think 1GB memory will be that cheap in 8 months”? :)

the SOC as it is can only access 512MB max so a lot more work will have to be done to make 1GB versions work

I was of the understanding that the SoC can address up to 1GB but we don’t believe it is possible to get a compatible 1GB LPDDR2 chip so 512MB is the limit.

As we know Liz is a goddess, but even she, can not fight Moore’s law, and i can not see her paying with The Osborne Effect. Do i get a free 1Gb one please?

If you wait, you’ll get 1GB RAM, USB 3.0, and a dual core processor

But it’ll cost 50 dollars. About the price of two sale priced hardcover books, (which right now is, I think, about 35 dollars for a pair.)

it is really nice to hear =)))0

Congrats on getting the upgrade out so fast, though I’m still happy with my 256MB model B revision 1.

One question, though – does this mean the upcoming model A will have 512MB?

No, it won’t (we have the chips for the first batch already, and they’re 256MB) – there’s some fiddlyness around the cost structure here, so for the foreseeable it’ll be 256MB.

I think that is good thing, it means 256Mb Pis will not be left behind software-wise.

^that
I’m happy about the news, I only worry that I in the future I wont be able to run most of the great software out there because no one cares about the early adopters anymore with their little ram.

Unfortunately, that is a serious problem with early adoption. You get worse hardware, and as it becomes more public, you become less able to handle the later software. In the same way, a first-generation iPhone can’t even start to handle the massive demands placed by today’s applications.

On the other hand, the Raspberry Pi development culture still favors efficiency, so at least for a while, you will only be unable to run the programs that really need that space.

It also helps that the model A will remain 256MB. The things that will make the most of the additional memory are applications that go beyond the basic goals of the pi (the biggest that come to my mind are gaming and media applications), so there should be rather limited scenarios where it will work on one, but not the other. Now obviously all bet are off in the event that they move to a new chip with a different core instruction set, but it will be years for those kind of chips to come down in price to meet the $25/$35 limitation so we don’t really need to worry about such things ;-)

I for one would like to see a 512MB model A (even if it is the same price as the model B!). I what the lower power consumption of the model A (for battery powered applications), and the price is not the main concern.
Can we please see a 512MB model A even if it is more than $25US.
P.S. I have two 256MB R Pis and could not be happier than to see that I can now get twice the memory for the same price. I will order another two. This is great, how no earth can people complain about things getting better?

The $25 price point has been a firm standard from the get go, and to change it now… well I think it would create some very justified outrage. The way things have shaped since the pi was first announced and just the unbelievable way it’s taken off like a wild fire, the model B has become the hobbyists board (this is a good thing :-) ), the increased RAM package just furthers this distinction. The model A provides a perfect environment for the true goals of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The importance of the model B and hobbyists helping to identify bugs and take the pi through its paces has been invaluable, but at this point in time there’s no need to change up the model A :-)

I’m going to have to buy another one now!

Chose a better way to put C6 capacitor too.

gaffer tape?

Two small blobs of epoxy on the sides. Then people will start complaining about not being able to remove-it at will.

Does that mean their is an upgrade path? If i can stick a quad core on their as well and still keep the power requirements and the price that would be great. : )

Whoa, I’m SO out of sync. There are quad-core capasitors nowadays? :o

Where is 512Mb model manufacturing? China or UK?

Both countries; RS’s manufacturing is still based out of China, and Farnell’s mostly out of the UK. Both plants are making 512MB boards (and have been doing so, and stockpiling, for a few weeks).

So I have some good news and some bad news.

The Pi which I have on order from RS will have 512M of RAM…..
…..but will not be stamped “Made in the UK”.

Are there any other differences with boards from the two manufacturers?

Sorry, what was the bad news?

He said it.
The good news was that he’s getting the 512 MB RAM.
The bad news was that it’s not going to be stamped “Made in UK”.
However, if you’re just saying that lacking that phrase is not a bad thing, then you’ve got another thing coming.

I’m torn too.
On one hand, hey, I’m getting 512.
On the other hand, I’d really rather have that “made somewhere in the Free World” logo on it.

I mean, if I can’t have an original production version, 256, which were all made in China.

If I ever felt like a reason to order a second Pi, it’s now… :-)

so did I. And ordered at once.
And I wonder which memory splits will be available – the GPU screams for memory! (shaders, anyone?)

Liz, thanks for the anouncement! BTW, I learned it via digg.

Second !

I’ll have to order a fouth now…..

Nice work! Impressed with how seemingly easily you’ve swapped in a different chip. I might have to get a second pi now…

If you’re also able to get the camera produced and model A produced, your charity deserves 100% more awards than you recieved in 2012.

Congrats and good luck on you continued sucess.

Will that affect the ability to split RAM between CPU and GPU? Specifically, will it be possible to give more RAM to the GPU?

I.e., is the 128 MiB limit for GPU RAM a firmware or a hardware limitation?

Theoretically any split is possible with 512MB. The GPU can address up to 1GB.

We’re planning to provide a 256M/256M split.

That’s great to hear!

I am not sure at what point this stops making sense for HTPC, but as XMBC runs just fine with 128 MiB of RAM. Could you provide a way to split up to 128 CPU / 384 GPU, as well?

Wow ! What kinds of crazy 3D models and textures do you want to load in 380Mb of VRAM ?

Maybe he’s trying to blend on an RPi, (or six).
Or perhaps he’s running BOiNC, and prefers to do CUDA sessions.

Will that affect the ability to split RAM between CPU and GPU? Specifically, will it be possible to give more RAM to the GPU?

I.e., is the 128 MiB limit for GPU RAM a firmware or a hardware limitation?

You guys rock! How much awseomeness can you add to an already uberawesome project?
Seriously, I don’t get why so many people complain about yet another great improvement… get yourself an iThingie and get on somebody else’s nerves…
Thomas

great addition .. bought another one.. I will take the old one and pass it on ..
you guys are just amazing .. fantastic story… keep up the good work …!
In the morning I go to your page first .. always good news!
-don

Looking forward to a Model C or whatever you will call it with a 1+ Ghz ARMv7 Cortex A7 next year. It would be nice to be dual core as well, but I imagine that would go over your $35 target more easily.

Also any chance you might be switching to the Mali 450 GPU in the future? (cheaper, but more powerful version of Mali 400).

http://www.arm.com/products/multimedia/mali-graphics-hardware/mali-450-mp.php

Unlikely. There a lot invested in the VC4 version, and the VC4 still slightly outperforms the Mali anyway I believe.

Excellent, this is fantastic, and a massive thanks to everyone involved for managing to achieve this for the amazing price. I brought one for myself early on which my eldest daughter now has, ordered one a couple of weeks ago for my youngest daughter… In the interests of fairness I shall have to order another one for my eldest, which will mean I can claim back the original one for myself. Happy days :-)

This has been neatly and smoothly managed – well done! I already have three Pi’s so I won’t be rushing out to buy another just yet, but I look forward to finding out in the forums what the benefits of the additional RAM might be.

(Incidentally I’ve had to repair two of my three Pi’s – a worthwhile future upgrade would be a more robust cardholder!)

Great news!

Does it means all the units with 512mb ram, will be based on Revision 2.0 boards exclusively?

Yes. We only manufacture Rev2.0 now.

Great news, I ordered my Pi on Thursday. Just spoken to Farnell UK, I’ll be sent the revision 2 board ;-)

In the spirit of the original BBC Micro, shouldn’t a model B with extra RAM be a B+ ?

We wanted to do that, actually! Consensus was only about 0.1% of the audience would get it, so we didn’t.

I agree that you should rename them or at least increase the revision number so there’s _one_ canonical way to refer to those boards.

Liz,
yep it does, distant selling says you can if bought over the internet I believe :-)
However I think you should have warned people say 2 weeks ago, then those that wantted to cancel could have, and then waited anoth 8 weeks for there new 512 Pi :-)

“However I think you should have warned people say 2 weeks ago, then those that wantted to cancel could have, and then waited anoth 8 weeks for there new 512 Pi”

And then we could have observed the Osborne Effect in action! ;-)

I must admit, I got a Rev2 Pi a couple of weeks ago, if I’d have known there was to be a memory upgrade, I’d have held off too!

Argh, the temptation was too great. I’ve just ordered myself a B+. Not sure what I’ll do with the B, actually having two might make development easier.

To that 0.1% it will always be the B+ though.

D’oh. I’ve been doing a good job of getting one of each varient as they come out, but had not yet got one with the holes, and “only” 256 meg of RAM…. my master collection will now be incomplete!

Yes, congratulations on the ‘spontaneous upgrade’ – you guys are great! However, I’m kinda in the same boat, but with more procrastination – I wanted to _start_ collecting one of each type, but now getting a ‘Made in the UK’ 256M model might be a little tough. (And I surely couldn’t afford a prototype… so I knew a ‘full’ collection would be impossible for me.)

Frankly, I personally don’t understand the whiners – the RPi with 256M is still such a *great* *flipping* *bargain* and the cash goes toward such a great foundation… Ah well, I guess there’s just no pleasing some people.

Oh well, now it’s time to start procrastinating getting a 512M model – maybe I can procrastinate myself right into a 1G model in a year or two. ;-) Seriously, tho… I really don’t think I will – procrastinate, that is. Payday’s in a couple days… I think I can sneak a few bucks away from the ‘Department of War and Budget.” [[ The wife. ;-) ]]

Again, just to reiterate: My hat’s off to all of you. Great job!

Collecting variants is a tad obsessive, but I do have an early(ish) production Pi (12/13) with the sticky CE tag on the back between D16 and D17 via RS on 4th May (after waiting since registering at 6:15AM on 29th February!). I recently got a “Made in UK” Rev2 from Element14 which took 3 days to arrive after placing the order on a Saturday!

As I see it, the Rev2 boards with 256MB RAM are going to be as rare as “first batch” Rev 1 boards so I’m pleased I’ve got one!

D’oh. I’ve been doing a good job of getting one of each varient as they come out, but had not yet got one with the holes, and “only” 256 meg of RAM…. my master collection will now be incomplete!

Just taken delivery of 10 Pis they have big 512MB stickers on the boxes :-)

Jealous….

Bravo guys! Jolly good work, means you’ll be going into schools with a higher spec =)

It seems a Joke… i have been 4 months waiting for my Raspberry Pi B model, and now you announce a new model with 512MB RAM 1 month later… :(

You should have notified that it could happen, and some of us could have chosen if we wanted to wait for this one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_Computer_Corporation

Thank you very much for beeing so straight to your costumers.

I understand it, but you also can offer a change for the users of the 256MB B-model when you decide to upgrade the product and sell it for the same price.

We have been waiting for our Raspberry for several months because demand was high, and a couple of months later you announce an upgrade.

You have to sell your stock, but you also have to think about your customers.

sell your existing on on ebay and buy a new one
or
find other projects for your existing one
or present

like newark did, dumped @ 35 & $2 shipping?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RASPBERRY-PI-MODEL-B-BOARD-ONLY-COMPUTER-83T1943-/380471013578?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5895d6f0ca

Liz: I think the problem here is that we (the consumers) didn’t expect to ever see a RasPi with extra hardware so soon (if at all). Before the RasPi was available we were under the impression the hardware would stay the same…

Full ack

I am happy that this device didn’t stayed the same. Because then it devellops and are not a failure and our devices would be useless (well not, but you prob. know what I try to say).

This is the “price” for a successfull device, be happy, like when others win on the lottery but you didn’t. And have a look att Moore’s Law for some background information why.

Aaaaargh… i wanted to say ‘I have been waiting 4 months’…

I have waited for months and just received my Raspberry Pi today. I hope it has 512 MB, otherwise I will definitely be returning it back.

The change from 256 to 512 MB is significant and being able use to Java is extremely important.

All these years I’ve been reading comments from Java enthusiasts that it’s not that memory hungry and slow as the urban legend goes, so it’s now true again? 256 MB is plenty even for Java projects unless you’re developing Eclipse :p

Eclipse is a nightmare. I’ve got it on my 8GB laptop with a dual core top of the range Intel processor. It’s abysmally slow.
Netbeans is much much better.

Just my £0.02.

Cheers,
Norm.

I don’t find Eclipse a nightmare. I’ve been using it for the last five years developing embedded software in C for a Freescale Coldfire target and it has worked fine.

I’m currently running it on an oldish MacBook Pro, Windows 7 and 8 GB RAM, with out of the box Java configuration and it is no slower than Visual Studio or Netbeans.

I’ve looked over at the Newark site in Canada to buy some but I only get the accessories and can’t find where to order a Pi :( I can think of quite a few new toys I can make with this its like Christmas in October. I wish I’d seen or heard if this earlier but when I see I’ll get twice the ram I am also happy that I may get a little bit better than first thought. Great stuff ! I’m very very anxious to get my hands on this , as an adult buyer I am a kid like you’ve intended it for :p

In Canada I ordered from Fennel and RS – I have been waiting 6 months for the one from RS – hopefully it is the 512 one. As for Christmas in October – I hope you get yours before Christmas :)

This is frustrating, especially when additional purchases such as the additional software codecs are locked to the board serial numbers.

If I now purchase a new board for it’s increased memory capacity I will then be faced with re-purchasing the codecs.

Additionally I sincerely believe this should have launched with some additional form of moniker, whilst I understand not wanting to leave “Model B” behind it perhaps should have been referred to as the B-1 or B-4 so people know what they’re getting.

Dude come on, can you not spare a couple of quid? It’s not that bad.

Brilliant!, can’t wait for mine to arrive, awesome birthday gift, come on already!

Amazing news! Well done on beating Moore’s Law by 50%.

Now I will just have to buy another one to play with, and finish my illuminated table so the first has something to do.

And for the whiners, this is what we all put up with in the eighties and nineties. In fact my mate who had a computer shop at the time used to tear his hair out in frustration when the price would drop or the spec would improve and he was stuck with old stock.

Come on guys; it’s £30. Back then we were paying out £100-400.

How can I check the memory on the one that arrived today?
Shipped on the 12th btw.

The main chip that you see on the board is the RAM chip (it is mounted on top of the CPU)
The 256MB version will be marked with K4P2G324ED and the
512MB version should be marked with K4P4G324EB or similar. (Note: P4 instead of P2)

Hi,

my order number is 128xxxx (RS!), 121xxxx’s was shipped on wednesday. I think mine (128xxxx) will be shipped on today/tomorrow. Can I hope for a new 512MB version?

I’ve ordered from RS from July and still waiting, I hope at least I can receive the upgraded version too :D

Is there a visual way to tell the difference between the 512 and 256 versions? Might be useful to know if you have a few by now.

Look at the number on the SoC (IC2)
Mine has K4P2G on a 256M board and K4P4G on a 512M board.
(The 2G=2Gbits=256M and 4G=4Gbits=512MB)

Cheers, Dom.

512MB: http://imgur.com/T3UVn
256MB: http://imgur.com/vZYHy

No one has asked the important question!

Is this enough memory to run a Minecraft server?

:-)

Maybe not enough for Minecraft, but you could run the Curiosity rover twice over! :-D

Me too received my Raspberry from RS just last week after some months of wait and feel sorry/upset to have only 256MB or ram, that was one of my biggest critic to Raspberry PI.
BUT:
a) ehi, it costs just 35 euros, I will find how to use my current one and order a new one soon
b) ehi, they are improving it as soon as it’s possible, so good!
c) ehi, it’s the way hardware has ever gone
d) ehi, now is time to ask for a more powerful CPU (like cubieboard’s one) ;P
Great new indeed, thanks for it!

You can update firmware from:
https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/tree/master/boot

E.g. download arm384_start.elf and rename it to start.elf on /boot partition. You will then have a 384M/128M memory split.

(or wait for a more automated way)

If you use the old memory splits, will it leave the other 256MB unallocated, or will it be allocated to the GPU? For example, the 128 split used to be 128 CPU/128 GPU. Would this split on the new unit give you 128 CPU/384 GPU, or 128 CPU/128 GPU with 256 unused?

The old start.elf files will just use 256M, and leave the other 256M unused.

Will there be new files released to apply more RAM to the GPU? I know there is someone further up in the comments that wanted a 384 GPU split.

Yes there is a 384 memory split, the very first of the post where it says “update:” provides a link to the github location with the new GPU memory splits ;-)

*Yes there is a 384 memory split* But the new 384 split provided is for 384 to the cpu, and 128 to the GPU, I was saying 128 to the CPU and 384 to the GPU. I don’t know that there would be any particular uses for it, but one other person asked about it, so I figured I would clarify for curiousity sake.

In that case I guess using an old start.elf would be a good way for a 512MB-Pi owner to check if their software still worked on a 256MB-Pi ? ;)
(if that’s something they were worried about)

Give it 6 months. At this rate RPi’s will outnumber Wintel boxes and virus protection will suddenly be needed for anything running Linux on an ARM.
Once that happens, 256 will be eaten by the AV anyway….

What a lovely surprise when my order from Farnell arrived this morning!

Love to see I’m not the only one with that “great” luck :(

Now THAT is REALLY annoying. One day short of a week after delivery, after waiting for MONTHS including a revised delivery date, you now announce an upgraded version? Oh thanks VERY much. I would rather have waited another week and get the new version with extra RAM, rather than the model with 256 MB RAM. Yes, I know there has to be a cut-off point, but surely you could have informed us earlier and given us the option to choose which model we’d prefer… even if it affected the delivery date. :(

Ha! not Just me then! mine came Thursday, expecting a new revision board, nope 1.1 I should have cancelled when I had the chance!

What i find annoying is people who complain that they were not advised the 512mb was coming yet have clearly not taken the advice here not to wait months with RS but buy immediately elsewhere.

Had you done this you would most probably had several months enjoyment of your 256mb RPi, would not be grumbling, and delighted to order another (as I did this morning) on the basis that four is four time the great value of one ;-)

Relax and stop blaming others please.

Lots of whinging, but can’t see anyone suggesting replacing the 256Mb memory chip(s?) with 512Mb ones? If there was a circuit diagram published for the new design I might have a go (and write it up) for those handy with a soldering iron

Just a thought

Huh?! Have you *seen* how the RAM is stacked on top of the CPU? There’s a picture on http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2058

NOT something you’d be able to do with a soldering iron!

Perhaps it would be possible with a hot air solder station/IR station ?

No, I hadn’t – hence the question…worth asking, surely?

Perhaps one of the manufacturers could provide some informed feedback/opinion?

Chris

The PoP manufacturing process takes some serious kit. Sadly not something that you’re ever going to be able to do at home!

YAY! Gonna buy me another piece of Pi

Doh!
I was thinking of buying a 3rd Pi – looks like I may need 2 more instead – the woes of begin an early adopter #firstworldproblems ;)

I’d definitely re-consider renaming the new model to the model C however. This would, I think, make it easier to understand than Model B v1 256Mb, Model B v2 256Mb & Model B v2 512Mb.

Actually now I see it written down its not _that_ bad.

As a question, is this officially the v2 with more ram or a v3?

Just got my 512MB Pi from Farnell an hour ago.
This is so great. Thank you very much :-)

Nice stuff, could you please tell me how I could buy a PI with samsung ram ?

If you order a Model B now – that’s what you’ll get! :-)

To all the people who are mad about getting (or just got) the “old” model, you’re pathetic…

Spoken by someone who hasn’t?

Time for me to start learning C++ and FLTK then, so that I can develop some apps myself.

It is good news, and it shows Moore’s law at work. I was expecting this, but not until a year from now or so (Q4 2013).

How does it affect power usage?

I’ve not had any problems with memory at 256MB for all the projects I’ve done, and if you’ve visited my raspberry pi python adventures or seen my demos locally, you know i’ve done quite a few, from mobile office server to pbx, from home automation to arcade emulator, programming in python, spin and wiring straight from the Pi etc. It does give more breathing room for Java.

But the main reason I’m excited about this, is for ZFS. That means that a NAS can be built based on IllumOS, smartOS etc.

I’m really happy to know that the RPi will have more RAM with the same price. I will alway welcome for better hardware profile but I don’t like price increase, because that is not what I expect from RPi.

Darn. Mine arrived about one week ago….

Looks like I’m getting yet another RPi… Oh well.

Sorry but I do not agree.
Now people will probably use their efforts on the 512 RAM based RPI, thus not concentrating anymore on getting the best out of the old model….

That is one nice thing about Model A being 256. Everyone with a “Model B v1 & v1.1” actually has a Model A + Ethernet.

Yay! Now FreeBSD will work ever better.

Nooooooooo. My 256MB arrived on friday and now I need to get another one :(

your 256MB model is quite good for all your needs. 524MB is just the cherry on top

Seeing all these irate comments, and I get it, but I kid you not, part of me is thinking ‘NO! Now I’ll never be able to buy one of those highly limited ‘Made in the UK RPi 256 Model B’s’ to add to my collection! I was too slow!!

—
gotta catch ’em all!

I know just what you were thinking, because I thought the same ;)

to be honest i kinda feel dumb now …having bought my raspi too early …but then again no one waits for technology !!! … if then i should have waited for another 5 years and who knows a quad core , 4 gb ram for the same price and size !!! great work guys in managing to squeeze in that 512 MB ram into the 35 dollar board !!

Astounding news! Congrats, R-Pi Foundation! Now I understand what Liz was alluding to in the comment thread a few posts back :-)

I see a few people complaining, but I thought it was understood that this is a development board and as such still a work in progress. At least, that’s how I’ve viewed it. Also, I like to think this makes my original board just a little more valuable, since there’s now a fixed upper limit on the number of 256 MB Model B boards that were produced.

I’m amazed and astounded by the way this project just keeps growing and developing. Well done!

Problem is it wasn’t understood by all the media outlets and they somewhat misrepresented the RPi, however this isn’t the fault of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. They can’t control every media/social/technology blogger out there.

But in the Raspberry Pi’s case “development board” was never supposed to mean unfinished hardware, although that is arguably what was delivered.

Did I forget to mention how awesome you guys are?

WOW! It still keeps getting better and better. First the Codecs, then HW Rev. 2, then safe auto-overclocking, and now twice the RAM! THANK YOU dudes and dudettes!

Dualcore 1,5GHz Cortex-A9 next Summer? It will be outdated low-end (read: cheap) then ;-) …And then an open source GPU Driver and bootloader as sugar on top.

Minor nagging: HW Rev. 2 should have included the 512MB RAM.
I bet there are people who just got their Rev. 1 after months of waiting, then sold it to buy a Rev. 2, and now want to sell it again, to buy a Rev. 2 with 512MB.
But I guess there is a good reason for this. Its also good for those who don’t need the extra RAM, and can now score several even cheaper RasPies on eBay.
I’ll definately sell my 2 Rev.1 and buy 2 512MB Rev.2s instead.

That is wonderful news! I’m still pleased to have been able to walk into Maplin’s store in Wimbledon on Saturday, to snap up the one starter kit they still had in stock.

What fantastic news! Congrats to all involved :-)

Will Model A be having 512MB? Are there some news when it will be available?

Liz already mentioned in these comments that the ModelA will still be 256MB, and Rob mentioned in his GoogleTalk that the ModelAs will hopefully be available before Christmas.

P.S. I guess http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs needs updating again ;)

Correct on both counts :)

And I’m looking into updating the FAQ as we speak…

p.s.

Speaking of eBay… Have you seen that someone in the Philippines is producing and selling Raspberry Pi stickers? I doubt this is Foundation-approved.

Auction is here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Raspberry-Pi-sticker-FREE-/271080661015?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f1daaa017

I appreciate this very much. However, I cannot get hold of a Raspberry Pi in the first place. I ordered three month ago from RS and from what I read in forum comments I am disheartened of the whole process. According to RS’s website my Pi should have already arrived. However, I did not get any updates on the process whatsoever since I ordered.

Could you, from the foundation, please remind RS that communication is important and that they need not fear as they a dealing with a friendly community. As it stands they create a lot of frustration and I am beginning to distrust the company.

They have been reminded. A lot.

Great, now I have to buy another one!

I SOLD MY RPI A WEEK AGO To a friend ……….HA HA HA HA :-D … now i ‘ m waiting for camera module to release so i can order both in one go

The Charme of the Raspberry PI is that you do not get high end hardware ;-) You ve to live with the limitations and use your brain (like in the C64 era) to break these limits … So 256 MB are enough and enjoy the limits and last but not least the slowness :-)

Will there be a 1GB model? No!
Several posts ask if there will be a 1Gb model.
The answer is a resounding NO! The reason is simple: there does no exist a 1Gb PoP memory which fits the BCM2835. Also the memories and the interface are of the type LPDDR2. There has been no new development in that category in the last years. All manufacturers switched to LPDDR3 and DDR3. So you do not have to wait for more memory. 512Mb is all you will get.

Guess it’ll just have to be dual SOC’s on the board then, sure that will be no trouble to layout in 6 layers on a credit-card…. ;)

Although I’m sure you already have a quad-SOC on your desk, gold plated of course, etched onto a postage stamp.

512Mb is excellent news, opens up more “power” applications, particularly when it comes to crunching forthcoming camera input.

People should find it refreshing that a company not driven by profit, provides an improved product without tacking on a premium (and credit to Farnel/RS for going along with it). I wonder how many companies have doubled the RAM on a computer and continued to sell it at the same price?

Congratulations on the upgrade.
when I read the post I first felt I was missing out. But I’m not looking to use mine as a desktop replacement but as a tool to learn Scratch and Python so I can show kids now that I’m a registered STEM Ambassador.
256MB is enough for me. Might even encourage me to do tighter code.

For people in the UK who want to help the next generation see how fun and exciting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are search for STEMNET and sign up to volunteer.

I wonder if a trick was missed here…
Don’t announce the upgrade.
Get newbies comments: “I think my Pi has 512MB”. Old timers: “Nah, you’re mistaken. They’re all 256.”
Chuckle.
Then announce it on April 1st, when no-one would believe you…

Keep up the good work!

So is there a trade in for early adopters?

It’s called ebay

I will just use my slower one for a project which doesn’t require as much ram, once I get the 512MB version. Is a good stack of ram for modern day use and could make porting raspi to run android easier. A raspi-phone anyone?

If anyone knows any place that has these in stock to ship in the US, let me know. Been looking all weekend. :(

Doh!, My Pi B ordered with RS almost 6 months ago arrived on Friday, it’s not even a UK manufacrtured model.

Doesn’t really matter for me, but it is a cool plus. :-)

Keep up the good work. I do hope your able to continue at your chosen pricing. I hope the organic growth of hardware and software continues.

If anybody noticed, the Pi just hit the digg frontpage!

Is this now a Model B Rev 3?
The naming is not very clever ;-)

Rather interesting to see people complaining over getting what they actually paid for.
I mean, you’re paying for a 256MB model, and oh noes and 256MB model arrived. I mean surely, I was allocated a 256MB some months ago but it’s my consumer rights to get a free upgrade. I mean, I paid for this ‘free’ upgrade didn’t I? /sarcasm

My Pi arrived just under 2 months ago now, was overjoyed when I received it and equally as pleased using it now. A 512MB model sounds rather nice, and you know what …
… I might just shell out again for a good cause and to help keep this project, piece of tech, masterpiece, going just so those waiting the extra years get a free 1GB upgrade do indeed get it! /sarcasm

The topic at hand is, there’s a new revision. You paid for the old and some were fortunate to get the newer at no extra cost.
You can count those who received a 512MB as ‘lucky’ but you can’t count yourself as being ‘unlucky’ just because you actually got what you paid for…

~ Takara

It’s not so much people are complaining about what they paid for, it’s that people who got more than what they paid for are making the people who got only what they paid for feel bad. Not a good way to do busines I think.

My take on it is they “paid for” access to a community that they fear just got more exclusive, excluding them.
That is, they “paid for” a product with a rich developing community. Now that that developing community may reap the comforts of programming for 512, rather than 256, they fear they may be left out in the cold.

I think these fears are premature. There is the upcoming Model A, which is supposed to still use 256, so any code written to be Model A friendly will also be >=rev1.1 friendly.
Further, the thing costs 35 dollars plus shipping. It’s a neat gadget. So, someone might allow a little feature creep, or software bloat into their design. I don’t think that’s a real problem in the Linux world. Certainly it’s an issue with Windows, but I’ve noticed that if you have a Windows machine that’ll no longer pull its weight, wiping it and turning it into a Linux box is a viable alternative. Further, there are years worth of Linux resources, as I understand it already compiled for the ARM, out there, so even if nothing else gets written for the 256MB version, there’s lots out there already, across the whole spectrum of utilties, that can already take advantage of it.

Had I had a chinese made 1.1/256, I’d be happy. Now I’m
expecting a chinese made 2.0/512. Personally, I’d trade it in a heartbeat for a Made in UK 256…then turn around and order another one, (from a supplier that can ship on time, I’d have canceled, but I didn’t want to stab in the back one of the two companies that sunk resources into making this happen at 35.)

I know it wasn’t possible at first to add 512mb of ram, I’m upset but I’m really upset at myself for not waiting. I wish there was some sort of upgrade trade in or add on to give people who couldn’t wait . I know its not your fault, I love you guys for producing such a great product, But myself being fifteen is mad at, well myself for not having money to buy this awesomely neater on… Man I should really find a job. Love you guys.

Sincerely,
Your Greatest Fan Reilly Greenlaw, USA

I used a 1Gb swap file with my 256Mb version to see if it could run a Java app, so I apt-got Eclipse, that well known hog, ran it up and compiled a small Java app. It worked so it’s all possible with only the 256Mb version! :) Still got RAM envy though :-)

Now if only that 32Gb Class 10 SDHC card could be got working…

I’ve had no problems with the 32Gb Class 10 SDHC cards I have.

I don’t have too many tears on the Pi I Early Adopted. I bought a second Pi because I was going to develop and test on one and then implement the vetted htpc features on the second. But so far that second has collected dust since it arrived. *tear induced sniffles*. Oh well, I do feel that the Pi was just a hair under-spec’d and this was a necessary change.

Anyway, are there any links to a second hand Pi donation program(s)?

If you’re serious, tweet me at @benzeman118… If there are enough people willing this could really help my school…

Sorry, I’m on the wrong side of the pond to make this work the best. But you did give me a few ideas closer to home. Good luck.

Nice one. I bought the earlier model, but I’m really impressed with the foundation for managing to so quickly pass on the benefits of falling component prices.

Just got mine today from RS, sadly a v1.1. Waited half a year and missed the new model by a day or two.

why not put 1 gb ram

You can’t get (and probably won’t be able to get in the future) a compatible 1GB LPDDR2 chip. 512MB is the limit of what is available.

Did not expect this! I ordered my very first Pi 2 days ago and now I think I may be disappointed when I open my package :/

Only kidding, I ordered the 256mb model because it fit my needs, and if I happen to receive a 512 instead, then I would be extra happy with my Pi!

I ordered my third Pi about three weeks ago as a birthday present for my grown up son. As it had not arrived by the weekend I gave him my Rev 2 board. Now the Pi I ordered for him arrived this morning and it is the larger one. So if you ordered yours a few days ago you should get the new model.

Awesome!
I’m super excited now!

Thanks Mike!

Will there be a way to trade in our Pis for a discount? This is just seems really dishonest even though it is our faults for thinking 256 will all we’re getting.

Order in June, receive email Oct. 4 saying it is being shipped. I’m sure I’ll get the 256 mb one… Sigh… I’ll order another one, and I’m sure by the time it ships there will be a 1 GB one.

Getting back to reality…
Well done to all on the upgrade.
What is the postal address for my ‘currant’ Pi so it can go in your donation box.

Come to think of it I’ve not heard much about donations recently
Hugh

Super happy to hear this.

Guess I’ll have to buy another slice of Pi!
Daughter can have my 256mb pi :-)

How many slices of Pi do you have to have before you get a full Pi? :)

The number is approximately:-
3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510 58209 74944 59230 78164

Hang on if the model A was going to have 128 and has been upgrade to 256 , the model B has gonefrom 256 to 512 when we do see the model A will it have 256 or 512 or by that time will it have 1 Gb

The model A, at this point, is still going to be 256. In the future as prices continue to drop, who knows? Maybe it will be possible to get a $25 computer with 512MB, but that’s a long, long way off. 1GB is not going to happen unless there is a significant change to the board (i.e. a change of the SoC being used)

Sorry i was just making a flippant comment.
It’s great that you managed to squeeze a bit more out of a machine it was already great machine in the first place.

At the same time, the manufacturer for the SoC will eventually retire it in favor of a more recent design, or, even if they don’t, higher performing SoC’s at a lower price point will eventually be available. If the Pi is still being produced in 5 years, I’d expect it to be a significantly different board than the original.

Very excited to see how applications will perform better with 512 MB RAM, especially for encoding/decoding videos. Good job!

I just don’t understand why people would complain against a charity when the charity is doing a supreme job in carrying out its mission.

People will always complain.

Totally agree.

People can easily pop XBMC on a 256 model and sell it for $35 in a heartbeat and get a new one. If not, there are hundreds of uses for a 256mb model. I am keeping my old ones for GPIO and peripheral development in case I nuke the board. :)

Kudos!
Forget about people complaining! It’s life!
My 256 MB Pi (first batch) is really doing fine and I am in love with it. Everyday experimenting something little new, hw or sw.
I was considering buying a second one and this news is icing on the cake (this is how it is meant to be used, isn’t it?).
Congrat to all the next 512 MB RAM owners!

Sleepy

Got my Pi a few months back and I’m deeply disappointed with this announcement. When are you guys going to produce a 32kB model so that I can do some real, tight coding!

Ok, seriously disappointed with some of the posts…

32Kb? Now that´s a luxury….. Timex 1000 anyone?

I have an abacus in the corner collecting dust. Will that do?

I’ll stick with my BBC B and Curta II thanks. Probably never use either again, but they look nice.

time to update the FAQ page. lol

We’re on it…

Want that nice new 512mb RPi tomorrow … well CPC are selling them from stock and if ordered by 7pm, it will be dispatched the same day for delivery tomorrow.

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=SC12590

Oh.. you may have guessed from the URL CPC = Farnell. This is a bit quicker than going via Element14 (also Farnell) which give a three week deliver.

Good luck with ‘CPC despatching from stock’ – mine’s been on hold for a month. That’s after waiting 3 months for RS and then cancelling. You know, by the time the Pi arrives I don’t care if it only has 512k, not M! All this is for a bit of datalogging – I could have written it out longhand by now :-)

Great Tip :)
Ordered at 20:55 last night and according to CPC site, now shipped!

Amazing. Fantastic. And you continue to roll your success into ever improved devices for us? And, at the same price point! Thank you!

I see no good deed goes unpunished… You have people are asking for trade-in-value? Please don’t let that get to you. Even very intelligent people… Even Raspberry Pi people, can have trouble with “perspective”.

Woot!

Our Raspberries arrived today and at first I thougt the Flyer with the RAM-Upgrade notice was a cruel Joke, since they only showed 256MB. But after I noticed there is a firmwareupgrade necessary to use the additional memory, I was impatient to get the update. Now its there and I really look forward to play around with it tomorrow. Really a great piece of hardware

Heads up for anyone who is ordering from Newark/Element14 in the USA. They state they have some in stock, but they are lying. When you order, you are then told that it is backordered until 1st Nov.

No they’re not: their orders system is set to default to a 3-week expected delivery. You’ll find that if you order there it will be there much sooner.

Please don’t accuse our partners of lying here – neither we nor they appreciate it, and it’s doubly annoying when you’re so far off the mark.

<3

Let’s say then that they are confusing customers with strange expected deliveries of something that it’s in stock…

Amazing you can do that at the same price! Ordered my second Pi, only had my first for a few weeks, but don’t understand the negative comments here.

(First version of this post got lost in the aether??)
Great News and as I’ve kept the original Box my Model B ‘Classic’ is now worth even more on Antiques Roadshow.
Or I could just buy a 512 and give ole’faithful to the next deserving Kid\School I meet.
Which I think is more in the spirit of the Foundation which is rapidly becoming an Empire.. Now where have I heard “Foundation and Empire” before..??

Well Done Guys

Thanks Ken – we’re very much hoping that a lot of people who choose to upgrade to a 512MB version will follow your example.

For those who feel cheated, I’m starting a class-action lawsuit on your behalf. Please forward $3500 to me at your earliest possible opportunity so that we can proceed with this.

You can expect satisfaction in about one decade.

I hope you’re going to bring the suit against the braggers here, they’re the only ones doing wrong here.

I ordered 1 pi about 2weeks ago and another one last week,both 256 mega ram. I feel a little bit cheated. I live in Brasil so if raspberry would change 1 of my 2 models with a new 512 mega model would be great.

The Raspberry Pi foundation has NOTHING to do with your order. They designed the unit, they are not involved in the resale of the units whatsoever. Please, instead of littering this website with your comments, why not take it up with the person or company you purchased your device from?

If you ordered purchased a Sony TV from a department store, and then Sony released a new model, would you call Sony for the return or would you call the department store?

I am about to order my 3rd Pi now to have the model with 512Mb of Ram. I think everybody that ordered only a short time ago and recieved the 256Mb model is a little sad for that.
Ok let´s have the next one.

Good thing my order at Element14 was back-ordered! I might get the new board! Shoot even 256mb is fine for me, Arch with LXDE only uses about 50-60mb. :)

Received my shipping notice from RS on Saturday. Does this mean I can expect the 512mb version?

So will this help with the Raspberry PI running Android ? 8- )

What a mess… waited so long for a Raspberry. Waited all the time from sawing the first posts to the message… we produce it… then I waited looong for yes the quality-test are finished…. then I waited so long cause a webside or two are down to order it… then I could placed my order…. then waiting looong for the postman….. and now in a really short time a better one comes…. really a mess

Shouldn’t you take that up with the people responsible for distributing and selling the RPi, instead of moaning in the comments of a non-profit?

Good!!!
Very Good!!!!

So, I got my first pi last week from RS. I got on the list in early march, ordered in may/june, missed the august shipment cut off by about 100 orders finally getting a shipment notification the first few days of October. It took about a week to get to the states from RS. The unit I received was a model B, revision 1.1+ with 256mb of RAM. I knew after spending less than 30 minutes with the board that I would be ordering another unit. So about 15 minutes ago (over 6 hours after reading this the first time) I placed an order for new unit from element14 which according to their ordering site still have more than 100 units available to ship out today. So there is still time to get a new board, quickly even in the US.

Congratulations to the foundation and thanks to the manufacturers and distributors who I believe were on quite tight margins before this upgrade.

One problem is that ordering process is now much more complicated.

Will I be able to specify red wheels when I place my order ?

Can I have my sandwich delivered separately, I would like a vintage cheddar ploughman’s on a home made bloomer. ( google translate can’t help you here )

Thanks

Excellent news. A bit of a bummer that I just got my first order, though I was just saying how I’d like another to tinker with! (My first is just an openelec media box.)

Guess I’ll be ordering one!

I will be getting a 512 MB version :-) Any rough estimates on how many RPI have been sold so far?

There are approximately half a million in the wild, and it looks quite likely that they’ll surpass a million sales by the end of the year :-)

The number of negative comments about this is disgraceful. You now get more for your money. End of.

Just ordered a new one from Farnell (UK). I’ll be giving the ‘old’ one to anyone willing to donate a tenner (or more) to a deserving cause – be that the Foundation or the nearest BHF charity box.

Well done to the RPF!

I guess this means we’ll soon have very competitive prices on eBay from those who want to resell their “old” model B :)

Thanks a lot for 2 good news in a single post !

Ya! I am happy the PI group are dedicated to constantly improving the product. I have 3 of the 256 Model B and I am happy I have them.

I’ll eventually purchased a 512meg version and eagerly await what the future might bring.

Sounds like the Raspbian config tool will now have some extra settings but who cares. My 256meg versions are working well and I am sure the 512meg versions will also work amazingly great.

I’ll start the *unfounded rumor* now: The 2014 Model B will be quad-core with 2gigs of ram :)

You guys have done it again! So freakin’ amazing. I was not expecting this so soon. More then happy to purchase the original and now two more of the 512mb units. For the $35 spent on the original, I have 100’s of uses for the orig model still.

Thanks for being awesome!

Any word on the RPi (Model A/B+) being supplied with a case (by default)?

That’s not a question 4 the Pi Foundation. They created the board. Cases and delivery is done by other parties. So you should ask them (RS or Element14) if they are willing to create packages with the board & case included.
However, there is so much choise in cases, it ‘s just g-r-e-a-t ! Thx 4 this great project !

I ask this question because the FAQ says ‘At this time, there is no official case. The education release later in 2012 will have a case by default.,,,’

The FAQ is now out of date! Liz has recently said that the Educational Launch will now be next year and that the Foundation no longer plans on doing cases. Quite were that leaves the ‘Educational version’ regarding cases I suspect the Foundation doesn’t know itself!

We do, actually – but we’re not going to discuss it yet. :)

I think the 256M –> 512M upgrade is great. I’ve welcomed each & every upgrade from the RasPi team: the Model A memory upgrade, Raspian improvements, overclocking, new Model B pinouts, and now the Model B memory upgrade. At some point I’m sure they’ll need a “Model C” to accommodate better, cheaper technology. I agree that simple upgrades (like memory) should be kept as the same model ID for simplicity.

I’ve purchased 3 RasPi’s since their introduction. I use them for projects, teaching Linux & Python to others, and I’ve already gifted one to help spread the news. Now I’ll simply purchase another (512M) for my main unit, and gift those that I don’t use. (But they sure do make nice dedicated project controllers!)

We should all try to remember Raspberry Pi’s original goals. At $35 each, they are *practically* disposable (or gift-able), and I can assure you that opening someone else’s eyes to non-Wintel computing is VERY rewarding.

To the RasPi Team: Keep up the good work, AND the upgrades. THANKS!

I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed too. I got my Pi recently and the boost would have been awesome. But then again, you guys wanted the Pi first and you got it. They are doing whats best for the foundation and I respect them for that. Bravo on the new update!

Not to be a downer but I don’t really care about this update. True it is nice but we still don’t have a GPU driver. That is the only really important part still missing. I would much rather have access to the GPU. Extra RAM would not be so important if we could have GPU acceleration.

I fear you are mistaken, you have multiple paths to the GPU (OpenGL ES being one of them).

Well there is no x11 GPU driver is there? I don’t think I would have missed this. There is still talk about this so how can everybody be wrong about if there is a driver or not.

I don’t mind that I paid for the 256 meg version and some people are getting the 512 meg version for the same price.
a) I’ve been playing with it for ages, and they had to wait for theirs
b) Its the price of development, I’ve shown the interest and registered it by buying one, Its help the foundation in a little way, things like this only gets better.
c) For goodness shake it’s 30 pounds! I’m used to working on workstations that are 100 times more expensive at home and work.
d) I have a collectors item, if I don’t end up killing it by mistake.

I just got an email about my dispatched unit with 512 MB memory ^_^ *dancing*

Just as I get one for my birthday. A bigger RAM comes out… never mind :)

I have a question that why should I use use RPI over other processors. How can it be useful for a student.

That is an excellent question to ask in our forums. But the long story short is that is all depends on your situation. If you can afford a more powerful PC then go get it! In the application of lower income individuals, or schools on a budget a $25/$35 PC which a student can take home with them is the difference between being a computer operator and a computer user. ;-)

I sometimes wonder what actually keeps the team going. I have followed this forum since just before release and have never seen so much moaning in a forum in my life. I think you have done an amazing job in very difficult circumstances, i suppose there have been a few teething issues but there are always bound to be in a project of this size, and especially one that grew to this size unexpectedly. Please ignore all the whingers and keep up the good work.
BTW Liz i loved the comment “Funny – me too. This blog’s larded with examples.”. I am forty-mumble years old and have never heard he word larded used in this way before but you can bet i’ll find a way to slip it into conversation at work tomorrow somehow.
Keep up the good work, Hiro.
P.S. I’m not going to get flamed for saying something nice about the foundation am i?

Thanks for your feedback.
Can I use windows OS on it and how can it be useful for a developer.

Bummer!
Got myself 3 pisces of the 256MB version….

ohh nooo…
now i know it is no good to be one of the first.
i have an “older” RPi model B rev 1.0 with only 256MB.

i think it is a good time to buy a new bunch of 4 RPi… than i have 8 in total.
or maybe i should wait two month… maybe there will be 64bit dualcore 1.5GHz RPi with 1GB and a ability to boot directly from an USB device or boot over network and PoE and Wakeup On LAN… :P

PS.: what about the RPi schematics of rev. 2.x … there is still only the old rev 1 available…
http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Raspberry-Pi-Schematics-R1.0.pdf

I’ve been enjoying two 256 RAM board for months now and they are great. No regrets getting them early.

I just bought a third, with 512, and now that I have a little more Linux knowledge I’ll be able to put it to the test.

Waiting for the Default Case and POE Model B++ edition,

then I’m sold (sommer 10 van hulle!) ;)

/waiting patiently still…

I have ordered a “2nd edition 512” and my “1st edition 256” will be squirrelled away and left in my will to my only child. Who knows what it will be worth in the future?

Why squirrel it away? You can happily use the 256mb version as a file server (http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19633) or simple web server while playing with the new one. Or even try linking then into the beginnings of a supercomputer (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/tag/supercomputer)

does the 512MB version will have the same power supply requirements like the 256MB ones (~700mA @ 5V)?

and an other question…
when you say, just from today ALL ordered RPi will be 512MB versions…
i am sure there are 256MB versions somewhere in the stocks. what will happen with these 256MB versions? will they go to shredder or will the soled with a special price or will they re-used / upgraded / re-soldered to 512MB (but than they are less quality ones, because of double mechanically/thermal stress)?

I am sure they are holding onto some, if only as replacements for PI’s returned under guarantee.

I am curious though where does this lead for future capabilities for android to the early adopters that gotten the 256mb version of the B model. Will android capability still be made for 256mb or will the minimum be gauged at the 512mb (making 256mb run through lots of swap usage?)

I’m asking this again. Why is Raspberry releasing new versions of the board all the time? Ok, now someone says: “what do you mean all the time, most of these changes have been just a little ones”. Moving from 128MB to 256MB and then from 256MB to 512MB in one year is just too fast. Why not release 1024MB version instead of 512MB? For reference, PS3 was released year 2006 and it is still running with 256MB memory and works like a charm. It is not about the memory, it is all about the software. Where is all the Raspberry software? I think the development of Raspberry suitable software has been quite minimal in general. I haven’t seen much practical software released for the Raspberry. Yes, there is some, but not much in general. It really would be ideal that Raspberry releases one good version of the board and freezes the changes for few years so that people could make good programs for non-changing platform with non-changing performance and limits. Why to buy model “C” now if there is a model “F” available in the end of year 2013? And of course, every component is soldered to the board so that it is difficult to update one component at a time. Wouldn’t it be more ideal that the board components were upgradeable individually instead of upgrading the whole board. It is not about the money, but I must say that it is a bit annoying that you must buy a new version of the Raspberry every 4 months to keep up the software running.

A good discussion point for the forums, but not very easy to discuss as a comment to a post ;-)

For the 1GB question, because there isn’t a 1GB PoP module that fits the RPi’s SoC, and since it’s considered “outdated” technology it is very unlikely that a 1GB PoP Memory module will *ever* exist.

Victory – you seem to be under the impression that adding the extra RAM immediately makes all the old programs stop working. That;s not the case – Linux uses virtual memory – if you have an app that uses more than the available RAM it uses swap. So apps will still work on both devices, but ones that use a lot of memory will run more slowly on the 256. But they will still work!

Also, the Raspi runs Linux – so the vast majority of Linux programs will run on it. That’s a LOT of software that already runs fine on the Raspi. That’s where all the software is.

I **guess** I’m glad I haven’t gotten mine yet :s

That’s the spirit!

Quick question

Does this also apply to orders placed with Element 14 in the USA, I have 2 rpi’s already but will gladly buy another if I know it will arrive with 512mb.

Thanks

Yes, it does. Fill your boots :)

Great news, Liz, thanks! Now I want another one!

To everyone disappointed with your “old” one, take it down to the workbench, whack it a few times with a hammer, and get a “new” one. It’s a THIRTY FIVE DOLLAR COMPUTER, that’s essentially disposable. [Well, OK, give or sell it to someone who wants it, but c’mon, really?]

Well, yes, this makes waiting another x weeks or so a bit less painful.

Anyhow, I don’t like the whining here… this is a great piece of work, we all get it for just a few bucks, the people that invented this gem are still working on this with enthusiasm and for very little money (as far as I understand). So again: a big thank you to you and another thank you for this little additional (RAM) present you gave to us.

Maybe one thing for the future: just let us (desperately waiting wannabe users) know a bit earlier, that you are working on some new ideas and that might result in x weeks of slipping schedules for delivery… Patience is easier with some information.

In this case publishing early information about this would be commercial suicide, (see “osborne effect”) so they really had no choice, and were even contractually obligated to Farnell/RS to keep silent about it.

I was one of the ones who suggested this spec bump via email.
Unfortunately after waited months and months for delivery my Raspberry Pi arrived last week.
I am gutted. Such cruel fate. :,(

I don’t know what kind of luck I’ve got _but_ like everyone I had to wait for my 1st Pi. It took about 3 months, but life went on. The next 1 I ordered turned up a week later, and today when I read about the new model I jumped on Element14, ordered, and it’s scheduled for delivery tomorrow. So maybe instead of complaining you all should just jump online and order the new model?

I for 1 welcome our 512MB overlords.

I ordered my raspberry pi from Newark Canada on friday. Will I get the 512mb version or the 256mb version because it is on backorder?

Disregard my comment

where can i buy in Portugal?

What was the cutoff ship date for manufacturers? Mine was sent out from RS at the end of September, is that just too early for the 512mb?

Fantastic NEWS!
I have been looking for a excuse to order another board!
My current board is a rev1 and I love it.
I’ll be ordering a B+ first thing tomorrow.

Well I would complain but it costs less than a new computer game. If anyone is really put out about the upgraded version even though they can afford it then buy a new version and donate your old one to a school or college to meddle with. Or find another use for it like a NAS, quad/tri copter, armada of solar powered GPS driven robots to remove all those plastic bottles from the oceans? Lots of uses for these.

Dear Eben/Raspberry Pi foundation
“The downside of this suggestion for us is that we’re very attached to $35 as our highest price point.”

I really respect what you’ve achieved but I feel that you are being idealistic here. You created the RPi for kids to learn programming but realistically most RPis will probably be used as media servers, low power PCs, embedded controllers etc with no programming in sight. There is a market for higher end models that are still cheap. A large market I’m guessing. I think you should embrace that market to allow you to grow the number of units and the size and capability and influence of your foundation. That will allow you to enhance your goal. It seems to me to be in everyone’s best iterests to provide differentiation, both in a cheaper and in a more expensive direction and accept that you’ve created a cheap, low power computer that can advance many areas in the world, as well as the one you started out with (programming).

Best regards,
Benjamin

Perhaps, but it’s their product and they can idealistic with it if they want to :-P , there are *tons* of other boards out there that have a higher cost and a beefier spec sheet to go with it, if you want to break the $35 price limit one might as well get a product that already exists rather than try to get the pi to become that product.

Not at all. If we can do it for $35, we are committed to keep doing it for $35.

so much for being an early adopter

Yep, this is what happens to early adopters.

I ordered from RS back on june 2, i was charged the day of the order and have yet to hear anything from them,.. anyone else order around the same time? think i will be getting the 512mb version?

My order was a full four weeks later than yours so I guess I have over 4 weeks to wait. Their FAQ still says it should have shipped by the end of last week. Come on RS at least give us some updates.
The only positive is that we should now get a 512MB version…..

Asked RS about it and they replied with these dates (not guaranteed)

Look at the last 6 digits from the order number, if its less than 150000 then it will be shipped between 12 and 18 October, less than 175000
between 19 and 25 November and less than 200000 between 26 November and 2 December.

All these (per my understanding) will be 512 MB.

I bought a Model B back in August, still haven’t got it, when I ordered the ram was 256MB, So by the time I get my Pi, will it be with 512MB?

If you are in the U.S. you will not be getting anywhere near the 512MB RasPi from Allied! I just received one from them today!

Still has the 140ma polyfuses, D14 still in place and the cpuinfo revision# is 0002. It does work, at least, and it has Samsung RAM.

So do not get your hopes up in the U.S. for any 512MB from this batch!

Element 14 – Sensing Solutions For Smart Home this is our project ^_^ and now RPI is making things Easy thanks to the Organization and Element 14

Congratulations on getting the 512k memory chips at such a good price!

I have two 256k PasPi’s that are humming along – but I have been looking for an excuse to an updated unit without the HDMI-CEC bug.

Looks like I was not the only one who had this idea. When I when to see if any were available right away, I got this:

“Unfortunately, due to the high demand we have experienced today, we have temporarily suspended sales of the new Raspberry Pi board while our systems catch up. Please add your name and email address below and we will contact you when you can place your order. We apologize for the inconvenience”

Ahh… The challenges of offering a highly successful product…

“512k … 256k”

Wrong unit.

Thank You Raspberry Pi Foundation. I have been patiently awaiting for my first RasPi and it makes it worth sll the wait. I guess Good things come to those who wait :)

So, given that this is only just over a month since the Rev2 board design was announced, and it seems like the first Rev2 boards “slipped out” unexpectedly, was the original plan for Rev2 boards to all be fitted with 512MB chips?

Also, did the Rev2 schematics ever get released anywhere yet? (has the release of the schematics been held back pending this upgraded-RAM announcement?)

No – the Rev2 boards were meant to be announced on the same day as Sony’s Welsh anniversary (which we posted about a month or so back), but some slipped out before then so we had to bring the announcement up. Schematics will be available soon.

Yay cool, although i have a question.
What if i put a 384M memory split setup card in a 256 Mb Pi? What will be the effect?… Will a kernel that auto detects the Ram size come up? such as if ram = something set that mem split…

I’ve been waiting very patiently for quite some time now.
I ordered from RS back in the middle of june and still nothing at my door. A little over a week ago i ordered from element 14 and thought i might have had it by now, I’m still just anxious to get my hands on one finally.

Im excited to get the 512mb version, if i understand the post correctly I “should” get the 512 version and greatly appreciate it, I love java as a programming language and the additional ram will surely be helpful. Not to mention I’d be willing to bet the GPU should be a bit happier now.

Anxiously awaiting my order here in the US.

No doubt RS has been a bit upsetting. I’ll be quite surprised if element14 delivers before RS, we’ll see.

My RaspberryPi just shipped 10/12 from Allied for the US. I hope I get the upgraded version, or at least the 2.0 version.

mine was shipped 10/13 got a version 1.0

I ordered about a week ago from Element 14. I actually received two phone calls from Element 14 verifying my order and then received an email today that my order has been upgraded to the 512mb version at no extra cost. Well… what can I say but Thank You! to the RPi org and Element 14. Element 14 confirmed a ship date of Nov 1 so… I’m really looking forward to it’s arrival! Thanks again!

I _AM_ happy that Raspberry Pi finally decided to up memory to 512Mb (which is great) BUT! I can never understand why is pioneers (people who pre-ordered Pi) stuck w/ 256Mb model yet new people (who’s getting their Pi just now) get 512Mb. What’s the moral of the story? If you’re first then you get burned!

lol hows it they get burned? Do apple give Iphone 5’s to people who ordered the original? No because it wasn’t around back then, just like the 512. I would happily haven taken a 256 back 6 months ago and would then proceed to buy a 512. Everything has upgrades, you can wait for them or be happy with what you get. Lucky for me I should be receiving my first slice of pi tomorrow in 512 form :P

Hardly. As a long-time early adopter of stuff myself, I know the value of having a device before other people, of community, and of being among the group whose support has allowed the producer of a device to improve it. I haven’t felt burned when I’ve been in your position before – but then again, I’m not a giant solipsist.

alexus, i have just seen your post and as im currently working 200m from the apple store i brought this macbook pro from i think ill pop down later today and ask them to swap it for the new retina display version with more memory as due to no fault of my own (i left my previous macbook on a plane) i was forced to buy this one the day the retina ones came out but couldnt get one.

“What’s the moral of the story? If you’re first then you get burned!”

If you order someting, expect to get the specification you agreed to buy?

I’m angry, my black and white TV doesn’t upgrade to color by moaning at it, nor will it do HD. I bought first, and got burned, apparently.

Blah, blah blah. Cannot believe the number of complainers here.

LIZ, EBEN, et al: THANK YOU FOR UPGRADING THE RAM!!!

I bought a RPi early in the cycle…$35…fantastic deal!
Then I bought two more (as I’m working on a Pi project that I want to be super-redundant…that’s ‘redundant’ in the American sense, not ‘unemployed/laid-off’. ) Also a fantastic deal.
That is to say, 3 RPis at $35 each…fantastic deal!

Now I can buy another 1 or 2 or 3 with 2x the memory for the very same price…fantastic deal! Repeat: FANTASTIC DEAL!

So I don’t understand what all the complaining is about. If you bought at the 11th hour and got the 256K version…big friggin deal, just buy another! Now you have a development Pi and a deployment Pi with 2x the memory. What exactly is the problem??!!

Any complainers, want to buy 3 RPis with the original 256K ram at, say, $31 each, please reply!!! Happy now??!!!
-waldo

Thank you! We’re getting pretty fractious ourselves (it is not a *super* amount of fun having to moderate hundreds of comments telling you you’ve just cheated someone – especially when what you’ve actually done is to give them access to a free thing), and it’s very nice to read something like this.

“want to buy 3 RPis with the original 256K ram”

If you ended up with only 256K you would have cause to complain ;)

Ha! 256K << 256Mb.

Cue the infamous Bill Gates quote, etc!

i agree. i can understand how they can feel cheated but i dont agree with it. unfortunately there are people who will barely miss out but thats how it is. but its not like they were cheated, just missed out on a free thing. that being said, i got an earlier version with 256, and while i wish i had a 512 one, im still glad i didnt wait. if anything, now i have an excuse to tell my wife we need another. besides, one of the great things about the pi is that they are so small and cheap you can have many for various projects at low cost. in comparison to other products, i’m willing to bet that the ratio of pi owners that will own multiple pis and those that own just one is much higher than with other products. i’ll just demote this older one to a different project.

the only thing that i wish i could do though is transfer codec licenses. i bought the codec licenses for the older one to use as a media center and havent even had much of a chance to use it except for testing it worked. now they probably wont even be used for that pi and i have to repurchase them for the new one. at least it was only $5.

thanks for everything liz and eben!

The 512MB is great news. I will be buying a couple here soon.

I was kinda let down by the news for the A model. It would have been nice if it was to be upgraded to 512MB also.

It will be sometime. Then we can do this all again ;D

Hey, what about a model A with 512MB, ethernet and an extra USB port, all for the same 25$?! xD

…or, the Model A can keep all the existing 256M Model B’s company, also helping to ensure SW development for that size memory continues. Although that issue is overblown IMHO, at least for my uses the 256M is fine.

buying couple more rasp pi. It is addictive. Soon, I can built a supercomputer.

Good news!
Now waiting RPi with 1GB RAM on board.

Great, am i happy that i got one in august. :(

Many people like to run the Raspberry Pi as a small, low-power server. No need for a lot of GPU memory, since console suffices. What will be the possible memory splits on the 512Mb model ?
(Will something like for example 500Mb CPU and 12Mb GPU be possible for such use?)

Many, many thx for your great project, and this great improvement which comes at the same price !
I wish this project a very long life !

I tested the JVM 7 for ARM from Oracle on similar powered ARM devices with 256MB and it works remarkably well. Applications I wrote which start swapping immediately and grind to a halt with OpenJDK work remarkably well and snappy with no swap with the proprietary ARM jvm.

You guys are amazing! Is there any way I can request a Welsh-made 512 Mb version in the U.S.? (I have bought 2 Made in China 256 Mb versions already)

I bought mine a month back. When it arrived, I was bit lucky when it said its the revised board and its now been made in UK :). Now I realise I’m not that lucky enough to have 512MB. But its OK. I dont see a point abt people whining for a 25quid device when they are ripped off by other devices they own, how about an iPhone release every year or their newer iOS “UPDATE” which makes older devices obsolete.

So ppl, stop cribbing and get on with it. This is one of the cheapest device you can buy, overclock it, customize it, run as many flavor of OSes as possible and still have your warranty :)

How about that???

Excellent.. I now have the perfect excuse to buy another Pi.

I’ll happily still use the 256m board I have too, its still a fantastic piece of kit. That will be going to my 12yr old son, who I am going to push into learning something useful, other than playing Minecraft or Roblox all of the time.

Will the extra ram make using Raspian quicker by much does anyone know?

Now that just head butting people who got 256MB of ram…

Why, because they got what they paid for?

Just received my 2 Raspberry Pi boards with 512MB RAM (Made in the UK), ordered from Farnell on 10/01. Thank you for the surprise!

IS RS slow? Ordered the same day and mine (3 RPis) is not even despatched…

I wanted to buy from RS because I’m already a customer and because the price is sligthly lower (27.40 euro instead of 29.03 euro from Farnell) but the expected delivery time was mid-january 2013 (now end of february), while Farnell had them in stock (luckily they were out of stock when I finalized the order so I had the 512MB delivered). So yes, RS looks much slower than Farnell.

Arrived today… 256mb model :(

I must say I ran out of energy after reading the first page of comments.

I would like to applaud the Foundation for its efforts. I think it faintly bizarre given your aims, to provide low cost computing for schools, and your fantastic achievement, a $35 computer, that there has been so much negative comment about the 512MB Pi.

I have had a Model B, version 1 for just over 2 months, and I must say that I have had more value out of it than the £30 it cost me. I admit that I placed an order for another Pi earlier this month, which has yet to be delivered, so I fully expect that to be 512MB model which is ‘Made in the UK’. I am pleased about that, but it in no way invalidates the experiences of the last 2 months, or my original board.

I will keep my original Pi because it still works as a cheap as chips HTPC or Media Centre. It will be a memento of learning how to program again.

I can afford to buy another Pi so no issue there.

I can understand the disappointment if you received a 256MB Pi the day before 512MB was announced. But have you really been robbed of anything? Several friends have waited months for theirs. And there will always be something better just over the horizon. Have the experience first. Get up and running. Write some code. Applaud the aims of the Foundation. Congratulate yourself for participating.

But if it is ‘something for nothing’ that you are after, then given the amount of effort that you have to invest with the Raspberry Pi, I doubt that you are going to find it here.

Roll on the Model C, but in the meantime I am going to start plugging things into the GPIO and build some projects. I wonder if I could start with a Touch Screen Remote Control for my HTPC?

cool, I got a text saying my PI was arriving today, I will be super duper happy if its the 512mb version, will make the wait even more worthwhile. Amazing project guys, keep up the great work, Im 34 doing a IT degree at the OU, and hope I can use this beauty to come up with something cool. many thanks.. Tobes

I am delighted to read this. We’ve been making very serious use of Raspberry Pi computers – a university module (final-year undergraduate) taught entirely with them. They’re fine, but my single biggest suggestion for a modest-but-useful improvement would have been more RAM. So – thanks!

So for the posters who feel, for some reason cheated, upset or even angry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL8e2ujXe8g

You were happy to pay for a product, the Rpi foundation went to great lengths to explain what you were getting, what you were signing up for. If you didn’t agree to this, more fool your for buying.

No need to rage against Liz or others here. Feel free to quietly stew having recieved a product, the spec of which is exactly what you paid for.

After reading this news, I felt really bad for getting my Pi a week ago(after waiting for 6 months in RS’s waiting list) with the PS capacitor not properly soldered no less.

But your comment, @robots, was all that took for me to recover my senses.
Thank you very much.

Liz and Team:
Congratulations for getting 2x the RAM in for the same price.
The Pi is an amazing computer, that I hope gets even more of a community.

I suggest to everyone, that has trouble accepting the situation to read @robots’s message.

Thanks for taking the time to read and understand.

Perspective is the key. We’re talking about something additional to what people ordered in the first place. No need to complain.

Cheers Piotr

Liz,
Are all boards shipped from yesterday the 512MB Boards ? I received a shipping advice Note from Farnell this morning and it shows the Part No. for the Old Board.

I was originally advised the board would be delivered the Week Commencing 29/10 and felt sure I would get the 512MB board. Will I get a 512MB board or the 256MB board if it is only shipped today from Farnell ?.

I am happy I am receiving the board faster than the 3 weeks stated, BUT I would prefer the 512MB board.

How do I check if it is a 512MB version?

Well, you could turn the thing on and check, or read the front page:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2191

Not as Liz needed my protection, we know how amazing amazon she is, but for people who keep complaining about the current RAM update: would you prefer this not to happen at all? So in 1-2 years you still buy the same hardware (as all other does then) and secretly whispering your dreams of having 512 in your pillow after drawing candle surrounded diablo-signs onto the floor to punish Liz incapable of expanding the memory to 512? Or should you complain about the hardware not getting cheaper while prices for ICs and semicoductors are dropping?

Do you complain because your half year old laptop has Sandy Bridge? And if you would have known that Ivy Bridge is just around the corner, you would bought that one?

So Liz and all the others. This is good, this is fun and happy coding to all!

As I sad this is awesome news but if you wait for four months on your RPi and receive old one just few days before new model as bouns for your patience and faith in RS then it is not OK and all of us can’t be happy. I sure have to close my order and take money back instead of waiting.This is definitely good example of not really nice customer relation from RS

More memory would be an outstanding idea, I have one of the early 256mb ones and this isn’t best for the media player and or general browsing. Could call it the “Gooseberry” cos everyone know the goozgog is sharper than a raspberry!!

I understand the foundation’s position entirely, and congratulate them on sourcing 512Mb chips for the same output cost, but one concern: Are we seeing a fragmentation of the original ideal which was not to pander to a culture of users that use these things as appliances, but to tinker and refactor useage approach?

If the business model for the foundation is linked to the ideal then they need to be very careful about too much bigger-is-better releases in the future.

As an old Forth-er, I would have preferred them to release a 512K model
to force more inventiveness. but that’s just me.

No fragmentation. It’s still a Raspi, and still does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s just a bigger tin.

what we are seeing in the comments are people clamoring for a yet-bigger-1Ghz-Tin. Doubling the capacity halves the the confidence that the Pi will steer a different course than what the industry has become.

you may be looking at a technical interpretation of my comment, but its more of a business tool sentiment i made.

Green Arrays have had a 144 computers on a chip for $20 a board for years and they have resisted relying on bigger-than-before

Just received mine 30 minutes ago from RS, it dispatched yesterday from Corby so I thought it would have 512mb, but they gave me one with 256mb.. I don’t blame Raspberry Pi for offering a free upgrade to new customers, but I do blame RS for dumping the last of the old stock on me.. I feel a bit cheated.

Thanks for letting us know – I’ll raise that with RS.

Sorry, I just saw your new post and I seem to have made a horrible mistake, this is the 512mb. The problem was I haven’t powered it on yet and was looking all over the internet on what is the visual differences were, and I mistook the my Samsung 225 as being 256mb. Sorry for the confusion, and thanks for the great support.

Already have the 256 model B, I’m wondering to upgrade only when a really upgraded model will come out with a new CPU and at least 1 GB of ram. Upgrading now it’s just a waist of money

Could always say you got interested in distributed computing or parallel computing. =P to validate the reason to get the new raspberry pi =)

This is outrageous, just seven day’s ago I received my rev1 RPi from RS after four months of waiting and then they start shipping model with 512 MB RAM. Thanks RS, thanks Foundation, I was really stupid because I did not canceled my order same day when RS did not dispatched my RPi instead I was waiting for what? For brand new not need rev1 RPi and they charge my account same second I order RPi and use my and ours money for four months once more to make me stupid and send me rev1 board that they dont know what to do with. Thanks RS, thanks Foundation you may say this does not have anything to do with you but they are selling your product they are your responsibillity not ours, if they do things like this and you dont take no action then you are not much different and you dont respect me as customer and client.

So you will get what you paid for? What you agreed to buy in the first place? Let me play you a song on the worlds smallest violin:

http://noclipmode.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/worlds-smallest-violin.jpg

Yes I got what I paid for but 4 months later, it would not be any problem if they dispatch me my RPi in 11 weeks as it was in order details but no they were waiting for 4 months to send me something they want to get rid of. Put it this way, you pay for 5 day of bread supply in your suppermarket, instead of every day fresh bread they are late and you have 5 breads on friday, ok you may be agree with that, but on Friday you got inedible bread from Monday maybe Tuesday, and you cant tell me this is OK just can’t and it is same with RS and RPI’s.

” you cant tell me this is OK”

You got what you ordered. It’s ok, you don’t live in Syria, you aren’t being bombed. Keep calm and carry on.

Well @robots… i haven’t seen that much AK since communism…

sorry for duplicate comments, something went wrong if someone can delete them I would be thankful

One way to dodge all the whining over the free lunch the next time could be to announcing and selling the new model at say $45 and when the stock is out change down to $35.

I got my Raspberry Pi delivered last week. How do i know which model I received – 256mb or 512mb?

See this post from earlier today.

Thanks for your reply Liz.

I’ve received the 2G one. Still in its silverish packaging not opened. Gutted that I’ve received a 256mb model. Are you accepting returns?

Would’ve preferred a 512mb. Feel like I’ve been ripped off after waiting months to receive a model which has been replaced within a day or so with a newer one.

Any help/advice would be great.

Kind regards

damn. i was going to order a new one for my boys for christmas. should have done it yesterday when the announcement was made because now element14 has suspended orders due to high demand. lol, i guess i didnt learn my lesson last time.

Not sure if you’re in the UK or not, but CPC just tweeted that they’re getting more in later this week, so if you preorder now you’ll get one soon.

[Edit to add – I just checked e14 – they are taking orders now.]

unfortunately im not in the uk. i tried the farnell page but it redirected me to element14/newark. do you have a link liz? something must be up because i still just get a “register your interest” form when trying to go to the order page on element14/newark.

This is good news.

Phew good thing I still haven’t ordered mine.

I ordered mine RsPi at RS. This was in July. I am still waiting. It tells me 6 weeks to go (http://raspberrypi.rsdelivers.com/default.aspx).
As they have raplaced the 256MB with 512MB label, i hope to get the new revision.
I am very happy about this, even if i need to wait not longer.

Anyone has experience with RS Online ? And where can i see, how long it will take, till it gets shipped ?

My order was shipped today (Oct 16). Sent an email to CS asking if I’ll be receiving the 512MB version, and the response was that they have no way of knowing which model I’ll receive as they had gotten a mixed shipment from the supplier. Now that you have made the announcement that all Model B shipped as of yesterday have 512MB, I’d be kind of disappointed if is a 256MB.
I’m considering delivery refusal so that I can be sure next one is a 512MB.

Poor show. You may get the 256 version, but thats what you ordered.

Agree, you’d be right only if you ordered it yesterday.

This post says he should get the 512.

With this in mind, we’re pleased to announce that from today all Model B Raspberry Pis will ship with 512MB of RAM as standard.

You might have to rename it Pumpkin Pi, but it’s oK with me…

Darn,

Just received my board on Monday from MCM and it was 256MB! talk about bad timing on the order.

This morning I started to read through the 320 odd responses to this post and didn’t finish. By this evening it’s over 450 and the theme seems to be the same.

Liz, Eben, you have much to learn about product management and product marketing but what does impress me is that you don’t seem to be phased at all. All power to your elbow, next release you’ll have the lessons you’ve learned from this one and you’ll do some things better. Good luck with your endeavours, I think you deserve it.

I’m sure they’d love to hear your suggestions of what they could/should have done differently… AIUI neither of them is from a product marketing background. They’re running a charity, not some megabucks corporation ;-)

My suggestions are expensive.

Her’es a free suggestion: This announcement came completely out of nowhere and now a lot of people felt like they lost the lottery while the winners are rubbing it in their faces. Next time, warn people and don’t give people the idea that 256 is all they’re getting, people don’t like surprises like this.

All these people saying its unfair, but think about it – if an anouncement was made to say – in 4 weeks time we are moving to 512. NOONE would buy the 256, leaving lots of product on the shelf, which on a low margin product like this (ie. no discounting possible to get rid of it) is a BAD THING. See the Osbourne effect.

cool… let’s all hide behind the Osbourne effect…

Although pleased for the community, I can not tell you how annoying it is that I had to wait a total of 5 months to receive my Pi from RS components (which arrived Friday morning) only to read about this news after :(
Horrifically disappointed !!!

“Horrifically disappointed !!!”

Oh dear. Keep this in perspective. You got what you ordered. What you paid for. You don’t live in Syria, you aren’t being bombed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL8e2ujXe8g

Although pleased for the community, I can not tell you how annoying it is that I had to wait a total of 5 months to receive my Pi from RS components (which arrived Friday morning) only to read about this news after :(
Horrifically disappointed !!!

GET A LIFE

Not very polite, witty, empathetic or even original. If you’re going to be rude at least make it amusing.

I didn’t mean to be polite, witty, empathetic or even original. I ordered my 256 meg pi’s the day after the big crash an received them with varying degrees of promptness from the two suppliers. I got what i ordered and paid for as
have the people? who seem to think it’s the
end of the world. Or some how they have been ripped off. Lots of people have worked hard and long to make this happen and
it make my blood boil to read some of these posts. Keep up the good work all and thanks for a great product.
..ly

and you’re not amusing.

nor are you.

I think it’s rather early to be doing a 512M version. Getting things to fit in limited resources is an excellent teaching point.
I am running java, which is running a slideshow (lots of ram for images in ram), controlling omxplayer for music and displaying a weather forecast (html from the web) all at the same time (and there is still ram left over, and I have disabled swap). If I could find some suitable GLES code for a good screensaver (such as a mandelbrot flyover) then I’d try to get that running too (perhaps with the slideshow showing through :-)
With all that in 256M just think what you need to do to EFFICIENTLY fill 512M

Great Job. My biggest problem is that CPU is way too slow to anything with it. The GPU could be faster as well. Maybe bump up the clocks on the Raspberry PI GPU.

“My biggest problem is that CPU is way too slow to anything with it”

Clearly this isn’t true, perhaps “you are doing it wrong”.

I ordered mine on the weekend. If it arrives with 256Mb I’ll be happy, if it arrives with 512Mb I’ll also be happy, there is just *no* downside. I want to add my congratulations to the project for creating something so awe-inspiringly useful for such a miniscule price (a fully functional computer for the price of a half dozen pints of beer!)

I think this was the right way to announce the complimentary upgrade (for which, BTW, thanks!)

The subjective problems some have seem to arisen from the long lead-time imposed by supply chain problems. In time, Raspberry Pi might overcome some of those.

I hope, though, that you will always continue put innovation first.

I ordered 18th of July. I expected to receive early November. After all, the demand was bound to be enormous. The team, including RS and Farnell, have done a great job and I am very grateful to them. I am still waiting for delivery, but pleased to hear about the memory upgrade.

256/512MB RAM… hmmmm. Reminds me of the early 80’s when we all went out and bought 16k Spectrums only to find out 8 months later there was an updated 48k version available. Yes, you could do much more with the later version with 4 times the RAM.

… including doing the maths to work out that it was actually *3* times the memory :-)

lol

So I was lucky enough to receive my pi in the post yesterday, but seems not lucky enough to get the upgrade :-(

Thank you for the 512MB that’s very appreciated but when are we expected to receive the RS Pi since I’ve received no email regarding delivery (I did receive the one with the delay notice before)

Wow. Now I know what all those early adopters of the 3DS felt like when they hacked the price in half. As soon as I order this thing a new one with double the ram comes out a week later making mine obsolete and making me feel like I just paid for the R&D they used to pretty much screw me. Oh, and they charged top dollar too since their was a “shortage” which is BS. They just wanted to push out the shitty stock to bring in the new unit and be as greedy as possible in the process. It’s an insult to your customers and a quick way to lose big chunks of your fan base! It’s sad too because I was really excited about the pi and all of it’s potential when I first started researching it. Now it just feels like I’ll be chasing the dragon as an independent consumer, constantly having to upgrade and buy new stuff just to keep up. As opposed to a student who has the latest and greatest handed to them with all the accessories and supplies they need, some of whom don’t even care. Whatever though, right? There’s my rant and here’s another lost fan

“making mine obsolete”

It isn’t.

“making me feel like I just paid for the R&D they used to pretty much screw me”

Don’t worry, you didn’t pay for the R&D.

“Oh, and they charged top dollar too since their was a “shortage” which is BS.”

Nobody forced you to order, obviously there was a shortage, demand was more than could be supplied, hence people waiting for their Pi. No BS here.

“Constantly having to upgrade and buy new stuff just to keep up”

You don’t have to.

“As opposed to a student who has the latest and greatest handed to them with all the accessories and supplies they need,”

No logic here.

“There’s my rant and here’s another lost fan”

I don’t think you “get” the point.

And on that note, we don’t allow insults here. Good bye.

whatever..

I have just received from the the UPS Man a delivery from Farnell, and when I opened it I got a great surprise as I only ordered the board last week 09/10/12.

A 512MB Raspberry Pi. I would have been happy with the 256MB version as I only wanted to get going with the device A.S.A.P.

I hope others waiting for their boards all receive 512MB Versions (Unless they wanted a 256MB !)

Thank you to the Foundation and Farnell for a prompt delivery.

Rev. 2 has the mount holes.. but 256mb RAM, however the new versions have 512mb ram.. so how many Rev. 2s with 256mb made it into the wild? it could they become a rare item that is valued in the future.. and is the 512mb RAM version Rev. 2.1?

Eben! You amazing generous man! I was freaking depress the whole day but you made it now all sunshine and tropical beaches! Raspberry Pi should be the Eighth Wonder of the World! I have so much love right now!

Great news :) !
I’m going to buy my second raspberry pi with Farnell.
I would never have imagined that the second one would be built in UK, auto-overclocked and have a more RAM (and I forget the codecs !).

Ordered 2 x Rpi yesterday (16/10) and arrived today (17/10). Both 512Mb. They go to join the other 4 I have that are earning their living. I cannot see what the outrage is if those that have ordered and got the 256Mb boards got what they have ordered. Yes, there have been some delays but these were not unexpected and it is now looking like hitting ‘off the shelf’ despatch. Well done Rpi team. Great idea, great product and now moving towards good distribution.

I hate you ;)

(ordered 3 weeks from RS, no response still. money is there, but nothing moves …)

Ordered mine months ago from RS, received a delay notice and now on 17/10 received the 256MB version while the 512Mb was announced days before shipping. Not very customer friendly!

Great news!!! What about a model C with 2 ethernet connections to transform RP into a router?

Thanks!

Why not connect the single IP port to a broadcom based router/wifi unit such as linksys wrt54gl?

Because I can’t use IPTABLES on linksys wrt54gl.
Besides, I can build rules with IPTABLES to make RP a firewall.

Ordered 2x 512MB Pis from CPC on Monday. £59.90 with free shipping. Arrived this morning. Very chuffed. :)

Great work, simply cant believe people are upset!

Things get better, things need to get better. Thats life.

The pi should evolve like everything else in life. Yes its barebones but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get the best package for the PRICE. Price seems to be the ultimate goal for the foundation and rightly so, why not be as good as it can for $35? Heres to more upgrades in the future.

And if your really still that upset just be thankful you have a “original” Raspberry Pi… might be worth something in the future eh? (looks at his day 1 Pi in the bodged project box! which is also horribly coated in solder flux or something from the factory, super early model I guess, I kind of like it* )

Mine arrived this morning as I walked out the door to go to work. No available peripherals at work. Yet, I’m anxious to figure out if I’ve go the 256MB rev or the 512MB: E3912RSV1.0B1.1

I just received my raspberry pi B this morning. How do I tell if it camme with 512 vs 256 MB ?

Look at the most recent post on the front page ;-)

I recieved my Raspberry Pi today (256 MB, board rev. 1).
I ordered it the end of June at RS.
It took so long to get here (The Netherlands), now the board is completely outdated!

Wel… this happened to me too. I live in Brazil.

Thanks.

To all those whinging – some of us ordered a pi back in June 2012 and have still not received anything – let alone a 256Mb version. I would have been a very happy bunny if I had a pi for a few months to play with, and would have happily purchased a second pi because I had the opportunity to use and enjoy one for that period without having spent since February reading about the latest trend in computing and the biggest thing to happen in uk computing since the BBC micro (which incidentally I cut my teeth on and self learnt 6502 assembler on). So to all those who already have a pi and are complaining about a great update – please stfu !

Just ordered another Pi… From Farnell, hopefully I’ll get a 512Mb UK built jobbie! :)

My old rev 1 will be relegated to a being a file server :)

Build the SkyNet with that! ;)

The day after this post, the 16th, I received an email from Allied Electronics that my Pi had just shipped and that it is a 256mb version. What I’m wondering is whether I should be receiving the 512mb version?

Ordered in july and yesterday i got a 256 MB Version ;-(.
This was my last ordering at RS!!!

Ordered a 256, got a 256. Problems, zero.

now you start acting like a parrot

Last week I ordered up 64 Raspberrys Pi for my all new supercomputer build… what an upgrade!!!!!

That’s going to be a *super* computer. ;)

After 13 weeks i recieve my rasp!, to learn that not a weel later it ships wirh double ram…nice work RS!

Received my “Pi” today double surprise….I only was expecting it in December as the shipment invoice stated. Plus it was upgraded to 512MB……Thanks Element14 for trying your best to ship out units fast as possible…….much appreciated.

eccezionale

With any luck, this will be post # 512 to this announcement. Apropos of nothing, I suppose.

it is in some measure an attestation of th popularity of a 512 megaberry raspi, however.

When will an updated image with raspi-config for the 512MB model be available for download?

I just checked RS Online and they seem to have this model listed, BUT with a 6 week dispatch time. Does this mean that they expect to receive it after 6 weeks in their warehouses, or should i expect the pi to arrive at my doorstep after 6 weeks? Also, how much do they stand by these dates (ie: what are the chances that i’ll receive this in less then 6 weeks or in more than 6 weeks)? What has been your experience on this?
I really wanted to try this (especially with OpenELEC), but waiting 6 weeks seems way to long.
Thanks!

Also, why is there such a big price difference between RS Online and Element 14? The difference is approx 10 GBP!

Element 14 ships way faster. RS is a simple snail …

I bougth my raspberry in oct/15 so it can be upgraded to 512Megas any upgrade can be done?

Fantastic!

You upgrade the model A to 256MB.
You fix PCB issues (and give us mounting holes).
You give us extra codecs cheap.
You give us turbo mode.
You upgrade the model B RAM to 512MB.

The Raspberry Pi just keeps getting better and better and still at that amazing $35 prize point. I love it.

I think I’m going to have to order another Pi – not that I really /need/ a 512MB version, since my 256MB version does everyrhing I need it to just fine. Just to have somerhing new to play with (and support the foundation) :-)

I can’t believe the number of people complaining. You just made the product better for all future buyers, but all of us who have 256MB Pi’s still got exactely what we ordered and a great product. 256MB is perfectly fine for most purposes. What’s to whine about??1
If peope feel “cheated” by a 256MB pi, they should just order a secong one…..

I want 2GB to run hadoop!~~

I would advocate going directly to a SODIMM connector.

I downloaded (wget https://… arm448_start.elf and named it start.elf, did a reboot and nothing worked, no boot, what a surprise !!! . Fortunately I had made a copy of the old start.elf file and was able to restore it with my sd usb card reader. Plugged it back in the Raspi and it booted…. so how do we get this nasty firmware from Github ????

I’ve made the same mistake. When selecting an elf file from the github webpage, it opens another webpage just showing some file properties, so you’re in effect downloading this webpage with wget. Try to add ?raw=true at the end of the link and you’ll download the contents of the actual file: https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/blob/master/boot/arm448_start.elf?raw=true

Thank you so much, I’ll try that ! Curious to know how you learn or know that trick, if you have the time… :-)

Me again, after a little reading, I saw there was a ZIP download available in https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware, just click on the button…

Glad to hear you’ve sorted the issue. I was in the same boat as you – eager to try the new memory split, I went for the 496MB however because I don’t use the GUI. So from the list of elf files I’ve just downloaded the one I needed, put it in the boot directory of the Raspberry Pi and.. after reboot it refused to start (the activity LED was flashing). So the second time I decided to pay more attention at what the links are opening, and saw the RAW button. That is how I found out the link I’ve posted above :)

ok I saw it, (?raw=true) very astute ! thanks. But “eben” changed everything today in the “/boot” firmware, and I don’t see any clear documentation…

On the one hand, I am happy for the foundation.

On the other, I’m a bit irked that it’s taken me so long to get it since I originally ordered… sorry… since I was permitted to order it (I was on a waiting list much earlier this year) only to find out that it shipped 4 days before the 256mb models were replaced with the 512mb ones…

I’m happy to have received it but I would have really preferred they launch the 512mb version as a ‘C model’.

It’s still awesome.

This is an excellent enhancement. Are there any plans to migrate to a faster SoC or an ARMv7-based SoC?

After reading the post I checked the au.element14.com website and they had the new model for order, so on the 17th I placed my order and was very happy to receive it today! Didn’t really think they had them in the country!

Great work guys, I now have an older development version to work on and the newer one to do some continue some desktop stuff on.

I am embarrassed by the childish behaviour of some here. Never has such a worthy project being dogged by so many ungrateful, self-centred, immature idiots. If you have moaned about this ordering a 256Mb / 512Mb take yourself outside and have a word with yourself. I know we geeks are socially inept but wow…….

farnell delivered today still the old version :(

Element 14 Australia have stocks, I ordered mine Tuesday and it delivered to to my door in rural QLD by Wednesday!
While googling for the new ELF files I find, profiteering has started already !
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/sydney-region/components/new-raspberry-pi-512mb-model-pickup-now/1008242290

so wheezy doesn’t detect/report the 512mb memory. Above it says to go HERE and download arm384_start.elf file. it doesn’t exist there. Anybody know where/how to get wheezy to recognise/use the 512mb memory???
/thanks
-Jim-

Check https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/commit/c57ea9dd367f12bf4fb41b7b86806a2dc6281176
They deleted those files and use a new method to let you set the split size.
The Official HOWTO in this article should be updated by someone but they didn’t.

Hell – I’m just upset because this means i’ll have to convince my wife for a second time that buying a PC that won’t allow her to play her favorite games is a good idea because its cool – I see lots of dish cleaning in my future – GREAT

I don’t have a raspberry pi, nor have i ordered one. I am for all intents and purposes a neutral. After reading some of the comments on here though i am somewhat offended on behalf of those people who ordered a pi, who were patient enough to have waited half a year, and then after having a fair point and raising their thoughts about the sudden upgrade being “a bit slack” in usually a fairly peaceful, generally amenable way, are simply ridiculed or fobbed off with zero empathy. Man [edit for potty mouth] that. Maybe they got what they paid for, but the way they are treated is quite frankly shocking. Have you heard of having a bit of compassion? Does that compute in your world? Some of these people are from foreign countries man and 35 dollars is possibly a large amount for them, and yes having a sudden and seemingly indiscriminate upgrade is possibly going to leave them with a bit of a bitter taste in their mouths. I understand your a charity and i understand recalling e.t.c is not your responsibility. Thats fair enough, but [edit for potty mouth] me man, If you can’t understand why someone whos patiently waited half a year for something cool, only to suddenly, as there pi arrives have a better version come along, would be slightly upset, then imho you need to lay off the computers for a bit.
[edit for potty mouth]to the overused argument well things get better with time, yes if they went in a shop and bought the device, and 6 months later something better came along, fair doos. But to have ordered something 6 months ago, you gotta really feel for those dudes/dudettes, who get told well better ones gonna come along now.

I personally think its pretty slack the way some of you treat those people who got a rough deal, yeah o.k they were unlucky man, you could show a bit of compassion for them though man.

No i don’t think people should be able to return the pi’s they bought, because they were sold what they bought so to speak, but [edit for potty mouth] me you dudes need to learn some pr skills asap man. ;)

I do however think the mass distribution of cheap machines running open source o/ses is a good thing in general. And encourages a learning/teaching attitude from a young age.

Dan, I think you are mistaking who is actually commenting here. The Foundation have never treated the people who received 256 at this particularly difficult changeover time with contempt i in fact we haven’t commented at all. All the comments you see here were made by the general public, not the Foundation.

There will always be a problem when you change the spec of a device – there is never a good time because there will always be people who miss out – it happens in all areas, not just computing devices. I feel for those who think they have missed out, but I cannot think of a viable alternative.

“I don’t have a raspberry pi, nor have i ordered one. I am for all intents and purposes a neutral.”

…and as such should be listened to as an independent. I have no axe to grind, I gave up on pi a while back but Liz, Eben I would like you to make this work. Please learn for the next release.

Learn what? Already aware of the Osbourne effect, which is the most vital thing here – you cannot discount to get rid of old stock, because there is no margin to discount. 512 were supposed to be flushed out of the system at announcement time, so anyone receiving one afterwards would get 512. If that’s not the case then the Foundation has been misinformed by its suppliers. Also, the premature release of the first 512’s to the public by suppliers didn’t help.

So, what can be learnt? Answers on a post card please…or as a reply here.

Stop quoting the Osborne effect as though it is some scientific proof, it isn’t, it was an inconclusive theory about one company.
Every manufacturing company deals with product roll, there are tried and trusted methods to clear old stock and help customers feel more comfortable with receiving either the older or newer product.

My order (RS Components) was send on 08 Oct 2012 and all I got was the 256MB Model B one week ago. After waiting MONTHS without ANY information about my order or shippment details you blame me with THAT?

Wtf? Now I’m really pissed off. That’s not fair…

Where is the mentioned arm384_start.elf?

1) delighted with the product! this is my third pi…
2) element 14 had the product on my door 3 days after my order!
3) PLEASE post in a prominent place what is stable . from my “experiments”
#160 with raspbian 9-18-2012 will not overclock correctly ..
#244 firmware is stable for 24hours at 1ghz! I can see that you have made overclock corrections from your comments in github .. a post as to what combination is stable will help cut down on complaints .. you can then say go to stable config. and see if you still have the problem …
thanks again for all your hard work! They are the best computers I’ve had!

sorry it was #247 not #244 ..
and while I am at it I think what is going on with the X and GPU development will be just amazing .. the 256 machines are still great!
and when x takes advantage of the gpu they will be awesome!

#250 firmware by dom answers most of the questions..sort of makes this post redundant .. now the system senses what kind of board you have and you can specify how much memory to go to gpu if your board is 256 or 512 – and the overclocking is just great now..

“download arm384_start.elf” – so where is it? there’s no such file on github.

Will we get an updated Raspbian image for the new 512MB model?

where is the file arm384_start.elf in the firmware/boot directory ?

I think there is a bit too much testosterone flying around on this issue.

Please all think what the Raspberry Pi was meant to be and was designed to achieve. It is a fantastic idea that has and will enable a new generation of real computer users, not just those that can use a spreadsheet.

They are now shipping 512MB versions, so what? I’m happy with my 256MB versions, one sitting happily hidden being a file server, the other with a plugboard connected and leds flashing away as I learn electronics (I was only allowed to do cooking at school).

Yesterday my Gert Board arrived, would I be annoyed if another updated version starts shipping next week? NO, I ordered it and got was I paid for.

If I do want a new 512MB Pi I will find a local school and give it to them free, and maybe offer to help run coding clubs.

We should all be thanking Eben, Liz and the team for what they have done, not carping on about trivial detail.

Just my humble opinion.

I have Debian user for a long time now just want to use the raspberry computer mount on back on my computer monitor to take less space up run Amateur Radio software on it

For those who are looking for arm384_start.elf, it’s no longer there, according to this commit:
https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/commit/c57ea9dd367f12bf4fb41b7b86806a2dc6281176

I hope Eben could update this blog soon enough so no more people will have to search for a file that doesn’t exist.

The file can still be downloaded from there if you click “View file @….” and then click on the “Raw” button allows you to save the armXXX_start.elf files

sucks im stuck with the old model B. well im not doing anything with it ATM but letting it sit in a drawer so I guess I dont feel so SOL lol

If they are available at RS(Allied Electronics?) and I placed an order August 27th, then why is Allied still saying no ship dates until mid November?

I bought 2. They shipped on Oct 16 but only have 256MB (“2G”) of RAM. The article says starting Oct 15 they would ship with 512MB for B model. ????

The instructions for loading the start.elf file, as noted, is out of date.

At this point, 2012-10-23, it appears the entire /boot directory must be copied over. Reboot, run free -m, and the first line should be approx 512MB (minus video memory).

DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS
here’s APPROXIMATELY what I did, working remotely from the terminal. It is late and I don’t have energy to verify these instructions.
My SSH server is enabled.

1. Download the folder contents of /boot at the link above.
There are many ways to do this. What I did on my Linux machine is below:
1a. After clicking the link, I clicked ‘download zip file’ in the upper right hand corner. This downloads the entire repository, but I have a fast connection.
1b. Once downloaded, I double-clicked the zip file.
1c. I extracted the boot folder only.

2. On the raspberry, back up the contents of /boot into a new folder. Here’s what I did:
2a. ssh pi@[PI IP] password: raspberry
2b. sudo -s
2c. cd /boot
2d. mkdir old
COMPLETE ALL FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS WITHOUT REBOOTING YOUR PI
2e. mv *.* old
2f mkdir ~/boot (prep for step 3)
2g exit
2h. exit. You should now be returned to your computer’s terminal shell

3. copy your local copy of the /boot directory over to the pi. Complete step 2f first. Here’s what I did:
3a. cd boot
3b. scp *.* pi@[your pi IP address]:/home/pi/boot
3c. ssh pi@[PI IP] password: raspberry
3d. sudo -s
3e. cd boot
3f. mv *.* /boot
3g. shutdown -rf now

4. Verify that your device has lots of memory
4a. Once it boots, ssh into the rpi.
4b. free -m should yield similar results to:

total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 438 101 337 0 12 46
-/+ buffers/cache: 42 396
Swap: 99 0 99

On a final note, i think a lot of things can be learnt from this experience for you guys/gals, perhaps if there is a major prob with distributing to customers, other avenues/companies can be explored.

Perhaps its more to do with start-up set-backs/difficulties, *shrugs. I’m not privvy to such info.

But as long as people are kept in the light with regards to dealings its better imho. If people entered into a deal/purchase being fully aware that there could be a delay for manufacture, then they can’t complain when it arrives “on time” so to speak.

But if the company that is distributing has been lazy/incompetent, its inexcusable as its only going to do you a dis-service to keep putting business their way.

If this is the case might i suggest finding a pleasantly placed well, (preferably bottomless) adorning oneself in ancient spartan wear, and performing a well placed boot to the midsection of the offending person. Casually announcing something random like “This is spartey!” whilst doing so, is optional. ;)

Now use start.elf and fixup.dat. Add config.txt paramater gpu_mem to select GPU mem and ARM gets the remainder. E.g. gpu_mem=64
Should handle 256M and 512M parts. The start_cd.elf and fixup_cd.dat will be used when gpu_mem=16.
loader.bin no longer needed.
Switch to compressed kernel images.

go to https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/commit/c57ea9dd367f12bf4fb41b7b86806a2dc6281176

select arm384_start.elf and press teh button next to it “view file”, u go to new link that have button “raw” press “raw” and wow the file arm384_start.elf is downloaded .
i assume its downloaded at /home/username/downloads, so run below command with root user
cp /home/username/download/arm384_start /boot/start.elf

also download fixup.dat (same way as above) from https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/commit/c57ea9dd367f12bf4fb41b7b86806a2dc6281176 and copy to /boot

What about the price? I have one Raspberry with 512MB and the price on invoice is 22,33 GBP, but now on the Farnell website price is 24,96 GBP.

Just received 512MB today! I’m really happy, thank you very much!

Apparently the information in this post wasn’t exactly right. My order was shipped on Oct 18, and I was very happy that I’d be receiving a 512MB version of the Pi, but ended up getting a 256MB version.

I know it’s still what I had ordered, but after this post promising otherwise, I’m a bit bummed. I’m still not going to be returning it and will just most likely order another one at a later date, to get the newer model.

Whilst the upgrade to the board is nice… I must echo the sentiments of people wondering what the long term implications of this may be. As it stands there are now two different versions of ‘the Model B’ with different capabilities.

Take OpenElec as an example, if at some point in the not too distant future someone either through accident or deliberate choice forces it to require the 512MB variant… that leaves all of us with the 256 units up the creek.

What if in six months the price of SoC based RAM goes through the floor (or through the roof)? Will we see yet another ‘model B’ with 1GB (or back to 256MB) of memory appear?

At some point you have to say this is a ‘Model A’, this a ‘Model B’ and so on

A bit of a raw deal for those of us that persevered and waited for the 256 version for months . My colleague has just been informed that he will receive an upgraded 512 mb model as mentioned above since his order has not been processed as yet.

I think they should intergrate Gigabit ethernet. (As I use my Pi for a NAS/Bit torrent client.

(Great work on the project anyway!)

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