On Thursday, three of the lead Raspberry Pi engineers hosted an AMA on the engineering subreddit. One of the most interesting tidbits was on the Pi 6. Looking back at previous launches, there was an average of 2.75 years between major Pi versions. Following that cycle, I'd expect a Pi 6 3 to 4 years after the Pi 5, which would put it either this year or next year. And my guess is Pi 6 development is probably already pretty far along. But there's that pesky global DRAM shortage that makes this a bad time to launch a new computer. There's no sense in releasing an SBC that costs twice as much as the one we have right now. I remember back when Raspberry Pi gave out these my other computer costs $35 stickers. I even have one of them on the sticker board back here. I guess it's a sign of the times that this thing's almost completely covered up now. Evan stretched his timeline to four to 4.5 years and indicated a Pi 6 wouldn't come before early 2028, which means the Pi 5 will remain Pi's flagship for another couple years. And if you're expecting a built-in M.2 slot or more ports on it, I'd temper your expectations. It sounds like the key feature will just be more of what's there already, a faster CPU and faster IO rather than adding new features. And instead of wasting precious silicon space with an NPU, Evan said that they see the CPU as their venue for AI. So I don't expect to see any specific AI chip or new AI features on the Pi 6 either. When asked about the Pi02W, Evans said the substrate supply is constrained. Basically, so many AI chips are being made that even the older chips using older process nodes might have to fight for the actual wafers that they use to make the chips. They're working with a new vendor to bring up more capacity. So hopefully the current Pi02W shortage should be temporary. It doesn't sound like a Pi 03 is on the horizon yet, though for two reasons. First, they need to give up on the single-sided PCB, which would add a little cost. Why is that? Well, because it's harder to stack RAM on top of the CPU with more modern chips that have more heat and more silicon. I covered how their package on package design worked in my video on the 02W when I x-rayed it to see what's inside. So, go check out that video if you want to see why. But second, newer RAM is way too expensive right now for the $15 Pi0 price point. The reason the Pi02W can still sell for that, at least when it's in stock, is its use of old LPDDR2 RAM, which apparently Raspberry Pi has a stockpile of. Someone in the thread mentioned the Pi 3B is what they're using as a lowerc cost alternative to the Pi 4 and Pi 5 right now. And Evan said it's still pretty popular, selling nearly a million units a year. That's despite it being over a decade old. Switching tracks to Raspberry Pi microcontrollers. James Adams, the CTO on the hardware side, chimed in. He said power and security were more challenging than expected on the RP2350, but their efforts seem to have paid off, especially after a new stepping or silicon revision, which fixed a current leakage bug. When someone asked about why Picos still use micro USB and not USBC, he said it's a cost issue. USBC connectors are more expensive than micro USB while also using a tiny bit more board space. That said, USBC will probably happen someday, and I hope it does soon because I hate having to keep around all these old micro USB cables. Eban also mentioned microcontroller shipments finally surpassed Pi SBC sales in 2025. That gap is probably widening this year as Pi prices continue going up. A few times in the thread, Pi engineers mentioned the software side being integral to having a good hardware experience. and Gordon Hollingworth, Raspberry Pi's software side CTO, vowed to spend 95% of software engineering time supporting and developing libraries, drivers, kernels, and OSS. If there's one thing where Raspberry Pi excels versus other embedded companies, it's software support. That's the reason people might still pay more for a Pi product despite the lack of new hardware. Until next time, I'm Jeff Garling.
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