Raspberry Pi Makes the RP2350 Available in Single-Chip Quantities, Teases Integrated Flash Variants
If you only need a single RP2350 for your next project, you don't have to tear a Raspberry Pi Pico apart: you can pick one up for just $1.
Raspberry Pi has announced a major milestone for anyone looking to go beyond off-the-shelf microcontroller boards for their next project: the general availability of its second-generation RP2350 microcontroller from its network of global resellers.
"Last summer we unveiled RP2350, our second-generation microcontroller platform, building on the success of RP2040, and designed to deliver even higher performance at a similar affordable price," says Raspberry Pi's Eben Upton. "Today, we’re delighted to announce that RP2350 is now available to buy from our worldwide network of Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers. Our global network of Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers ensures you can access RP2350 quickly and affordably, no matter where you are, with fast local shipping and reliable customer service."
The RP2350 launched back in August last year, on board the company's Raspberry Pi Pico 2 microcontroller development board — though, technically speaking, this was the second device to feature the chip, after a surprise debut on the badge for the DEFCON 32 hackers' conference. Where the original RP2050, the company's first in-house microcontroller design, had two Arm Cortex-M0+ cores, the RP2350 features two more powerful Arm Cortex-M33 cores plus the option to use a pair of free and open-source RISC-V-based Hazard3 cores instead. There's 520kB of RAM, enlarged Programmable Input/Output (PIO) blocks, and a new High-Speed Transmission (HSTX) peripheral that can drive a DVI-compatible display without tying up the CPU or PIO.
While the RP2350, and its larger siblings the RP2350A and RP2350B, have been available at volume direct from Raspberry Pi, allowing third-party companies to launch their own boards, they have not been available to individuals in low minimum order quantities — until now. The RP2040 is priced at $0.70 per unit in a 3,400-unit reel, $0.80 per unit in a 500-unit reel, or $1 in single-unit quantities; if you'd rather pick up the larger RP2350, that's $0.80 each in 3,400 quantities, $0.90 in 500 quantities, or $1.10 for just one chip; and the RP2350B, with the largest general-purpose input/output (GPIO) provision of any model, is priced at $0.90 per unit in 2,500 quantities, $1 in 500 quantities, and $1.20 for a single chip.
"For smaller-footprint applications, our RP2354A and RP2354B variants — featuring 2MB of stacked flash memory — are in the final stages of development and testing with early-access partners," Upton adds of the company's plans for follow-up designs, referring to the company's plans to launch the first RP-family chips with integrated flash storage. "We'll soon be ramping to mass production, and plan to make these variants available through our Approved Reseller partners later this year."
More information is available on the RP2350 family product page, including links to order the chips from participating resellers.
