Raspberry Pi B+ - Still Slow, But A Small Improvement

[Veerappan]

I was worried for a minute... I just ordered my Pi B last week and it's still in transit... so I'm glad that most of the improvements are ones that I don't really care about (I'm building a network print server that may also end up used for arm development and poking at the open-source videocore drivers that are being worked on).

[FLHerne]

Two more USB ports when it didn't even have enough to power one before >.>

Power was already low, I doubt anyone cares too much about it.

The maximum input power is unchanged (at 5W for a decent adaptor), so 1W less used by the board itself -> 1W more for USB.

Now maybe you can plug a keyboard and a mouse in simultaneously, and not have it crash!

[riklaunim]

The maximum input power is unchanged (at 5W for a decent adaptor), so 1W less used by the board itself -> 1W more for USB.

Now maybe you can plug a keyboard and a mouse in simultaneously, and not have it crash!

Recommended PSU is 5V2A while before it was designed to run from 0.7-0.8A PSU (without addons). It's not stated that each USB can use 0.5A, but they say it's more.


The best part is the turmoil Banana Pi made. It's yet another A20 single board computer but it directly targets Raspberry Pi - by name, shape, some software. Virus marketing made it's job and now people that did not had any knowledge of other SBC not ask questions, order it... and RPi people seems to don't like it, some are even bit aggressive about it. It's odd that a foundation that targets education and engineering/programming doesn't want to have a wide set of hardware and software - including Android (apps and projects like kurio), x86 Linux and Windows - especially if they also want to show up in public tenders etc. Quad core RK3188 Android dongles are now getting cheaper than shop RPI B prices. Similar Chinese tablets go down too. Intel Bay Trail PCs are around $200 and laptops around $300 so not that much (while quad core and modern)... and makers/hackers are becoming more aware of alternative projects and start to demand more than RPi can offer.

[Akdor 1154]

Good grief, what a shit headline. Calling the rpi slow is like calling a Beowulf cluster a burden to carry in your pocket. Completely true, completely irrelevant, and complete flamebait.

[Baconmon]

A Question..

Yes I know the raspberry-pi wasn't specifically made to be media-player for 1080p and stuff, but lots of people use it for that any way, including me.. I have raspbmc on it..

The reason RPi can play 1080p h264 is because the GPU decodes it, right?..

My problem is, h265 is coming soon, in fact you can already find it being used already on some movies..
But the RPi can't play h265..

So my question is (maybe 2 questions actually): If the software was updated in the future so that the GPU could know how to decode h265 as well, then could RPi play 1080p h265 videos?..

And if the answer is no, or you want to yell at me and tell me "RPi wasn't made to do that!!", then I would like to know some thing else that is more powerful than RPi but still tiny like it..

I would like to keep my home-theater PC a tiny thing that isn't really a PC..
I know there are many things to choose from already that are small like RPi, but I like RPi because of how popular it is, and so a lot of things get made for it specifically, like raspbmc..

So what is the next most popular thing (besides RPi) that would be more powerful and able to play h265 and etc.. I don't care about the price..

[Kivada]

Yes I know the raspberry-pi wasn't specifically made to be media-player for 1080p and stuff, but lots of people use it for that any way, including me.. I have raspbmc on it..

The reason RPi can play 1080p h264 is because the GPU decodes it, right?..

My problem is, h265 is coming soon, in fact you can already find it being used already on some movies..
But the RPi can't play h265..

So my question is (maybe 2 questions actually): If the software was updated in the future so that the GPU could know how to decode h265 as well, then could RPi play 1080p h265 videos?..

And if the answer is no, or you want to yell at me and tell me "RPi wasn't made to do that!!", then I would like to know some thing else that is more powerful than RPi but still tiny like it..

I would like to keep my home-theater PC a tiny thing that isn't really a PC..
I know there are many things to choose from already that are small like RPi, but I like RPi because of how popular it is, and so a lot of things get made for it specifically, like raspbmc..

So what is the next most popular thing (besides RPi) that would be more powerful and able to play h265 and etc.. I don't care about the price..

You should have picked up one of those ECS KBN-I/2100 boards when they could be had for only $30 after rebate, it absolutely destroys the RPi and has the option to expand the supported codecs with a DSP upgrade whenever someone makes an H.265/VP9 successor to the Broadcom CrystalHD mPCIe DSP card that was all the rage a few years back. Well that or add in a Radeon GPU that will support it when they come out.

[erendorn]

The reason RPi can play 1080p h264 is because the GPU decodes it, right?..

My problem is, h265 is coming soon, in fact you can already find it being used already on some movies..
But the RPi can't play h265..

So my question is (maybe 2 questions actually): If the software was updated in the future so that the GPU could know how to decode h265 as well, then could RPi play 1080p h265 videos?..

Like all low power devices, it's not even the GPU that decodes it, it's a dedicated chip. The h264 codec is written in hardware, which itself is a chip inside the GPU package, so it is not possible to update it.

There are external hardware decoders, that you can change/replace (e.g. Broadcom decoder chipsets), but you would need at least a mPCIe interface, which the RPi has not.

Given the price, the most likely solution is to replace the Pi by a board that can do h265 when you find one, or transcode your movies to h264 on a beefier PC each time.

[Calinou]

The widespread usage of overblown frameworks and interpreted languages (like JS for GNOME) does nothing to alleviate the issue.

Interpreted languages for OS tasks have become a real cancer in modern computing.

If you take a look how much a simple compiler update can increase program performance, imagine how fast modern GUIs would run if they weren't written in obscure typeless, interpreted languages..

How are interpreted, high-level languages more obscure? They're made so that you have the same results by writing less code that's also easier to read in the process, if you do it properly. They're generally used for tasks where the speed of C or C++ isn't worth the complexity.

The Raspberry Pi wasn't made to be the home to a generic and “full” OS, it's normally more intended for appliance uses.

[buscher]

What a (bad) topic...

But I have wish, for up2date gcc 4.7/8/9/10 vs. llvm/clang-3.3/4 benchmarks on raspi
As llvm used to generate some really slow code for armv6... I wonder if it changed.

[plonoma]

I understand what you're saying, and to a degree, I agree. But, what bothers me about the Pi is as a supposedly non-profit product, for an additional $15 there are better alternatives. The Pi is just about the cheapest fully functional PC you can get, but I think what bothers me about the Pi more than anything else are people's expectations of it. It's not meant for 1080p video playback. It isn't meant for high-speed storage and networking. It isn't going to replace your 5 year old PC. It isn't going to run Windows or it's applications. It was originally designed to be an educational tool, and all the constant complaining about how it didn't do this-or-that turned it into something it didn't need to be. The original B model was supposed to only have 256MB of RAM and 2 USB ports. For what the Pi was supposed to do, this was sufficient. Seriously, the self-entitlement of people these days is a burden to society sometimes.

The Raspberry Pi hardware has dedicated hardware for video decoding.

http://www.broadcom.com/products/BCM2835

1080p30 Full HD HP H.264 Video Encode/Decode

Which deludes people into thinking the RPi is as fast as any other current computer.
Most laymen don't know there are big differences between computer models.
They just see all computers run windows.
They think applications directly manage hardware without the OS, that the OS only provides the start menu and GUI, just like any other program.