Raspberry Pi has announced its latest microcontroller board, the Pico 2 W, expanding its autumn product lineup with an enhanced wireless-enabled variant of the recently launched Pico 2.
The new board – priced at $7 – integrates wireless capabilities with the company’s RP2350 microcontroller, positioning itself as a crucial IoT development component.
The device builds upon the success of its predecessor, the RP2040, which was introduced in 2021. The original microcontroller gained significant traction among both hobbyist developers and professional engineers, particularly for its programmable I/O subsystem and cost-effective high-performance capabilities.
The new RP2350 microcontroller at the heart of the Pico 2 W introduces several notable improvements, including enhanced processing cores, expanded memory capacity, and floating-point computation support.
Security features have also been bolstered through the integration of Arm’s TrustZone for Cortex-M, while on-chip OTP (One-Time Programmable) memory and optimised power consumption round out the specs.
The board’s wireless connectivity is powered by Infineon’s CYW43439 modem, offering 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2 capabilities. These features are supported by both C and MicroPython libraries, making the board accessible to developers of varying expertise levels.
“Many of the projects and products that people build on top of our platforms – whether that’s our Linux-capable Raspberry Pi computers, our microcontroller boards, or our silicon products – answer to the general description ‘Internet of Things’,” explained the company.
“They combine local compute, storage, and interfacing to the real world with connectivity back to the cloud. Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W brings all the power of RP2350 to these IoT projects.”
For professional developers looking to scale their prototypes into commercial products, Raspberry Pi has confirmed the upcoming release of their RM2 radio module, which is already being utilised in Pimoroni’s Pico Plus 2 W.
The company has hinted at further developments for the Pico 2 series, with additional announcements expected in early 2025.
(Image Credit: Raspberry Pi)
See also: Particle Tachyon: Bringing smartphone power to IoT
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