While Raspberry Pi has been using their own chip designs as of late, they have always used Arm CPUs since 2008. It seems that the thing they have between them is drawing them closer together. Today, arm has picked up a minority stake in Raspberry Pi. While we don’t know exactly what’s in the deal, both companies have stated that it’s “strategic investment” on Arm’s part.
So, that’s what the kids are calling it these days…
Arm appears to be moving closer and closer into the IoT (Internet of Things) space.
With the rapid growth of edge and endpoint AI applications, platforms like those from Raspberry Pi, built on Arm, are critical to driving the adoption of high-performance IoT devices globally by enabling developers to innovate faster and more easily.”
Paul Williamson, senior vice-president and general manager of Arm’s IoT division
For years, the Raspberry Pi has been the go to for most IoT developers because of its low cost and ability to do many things. More than half of them in the wild are being used for industrial and commercial purposes according to The Register.
But, of course, where there’s money to be made, the means tends to follow. Many enthusiasts believe that Raspberry Pi has chosen to focus on those partners. It has been leaving many students and enthusiast out in the cold.
Another threat to Raspberry Pi and Arm is RISC-V. RISC-V is an open-source processor design that has been gaining a lot of traction lately in this space. It might also explain why the two companies have been getting chummy all of a sudden. Also, with RISC-V being open source, companies like Google and Qualcomm are interested leaving Arm licensing deals behind.
You just gotta love when open source comes in and just turns a table over.
