[conspire] Pi Zero: A full Raspberry Pi for just $5

[Rick Moen]

Pi Zero: A full Raspberry Pi for just $5
New Raspberry Pi costs less than the HDMI cable you'll need to plug it
into a TV.

by Sebastian Anthony (UK) - Nov 26, 2015 3:30am PST

Have you ever wanted a Raspberry Pi but thought that £16/$25—roughly
three packs of cigarettes—was a little exorbitant for a complete
computer capable of running Linux?  Well, I have good news:  The
Raspberry Pi Foundation has just released the Pi Zero, a single-board
computer that costs just £4/$5.

The Zero isn't just some add-on module or something like that,
either—it's a full-fledged member of the Raspberry Pi family.  The Zero
is powered by a Broadcom BCM2835 (the same SoC in the Raspberry Pi 1),
with a 1GHz ARM11 CPU core.  There's 512MB of RAM; a micro SD slot; two
micro USB sockets (data and power); and a mini HDMI socket that can
output at 1080p60.  Perhaps most importantly, though, the Zero has 40
GPIO pins with the same pinout as the Model A+, B+, and 2B.  There's
also some headers for RCA composite video out.

The ARM CPU, according to the Foundation, is 40 percent faster than the
original Raspberry Pi 1 Models A, A+, B, and B+.  The SoC, plus the RAM
and the standard GPIO layout, means that the Zero has enough chutzpah to
run Raspbian.  It should also be fully compatible with most existing
Raspberry Pi software and projects.
[...]


http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/11/pi-zero-a-full-raspberry-pi-for-just-4/