Not to be confused with the similar-looking Compute Modules, the Zero is a full computer with an HDMI connector on-board.
“Where our larger products have grown steadily more powerful over the years, we’ve never found a way to pack more performance into the Zero form factor,” said Raspberry Pi’s Eben Upton.
Raspberry Pi 1, Raspberry Pi Zero and the wireless version Zero W are built around Broadcom’s BCM2835 SoC, using package-on-package to save footprint by stacking the SDRAM on top of the processor, with the processor in the cavity between the balls of the RAM.
Later more powerful quad-core Brodcom/Raspberry Pi processors (Cortex-A7 BCM2836, Cortex-A53 BCM2837) would not fit in the cavity.
For the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, a 500Mbyte Micron LPDDR2 die is co-packaged on top of the die (BCM2710A1) from Cortex-A53 CM2837A1, anong with decoupling Capacitors, to produce the RP3A0 system-in-package. Clocking is at 1GHz, where multi-threaded sysbench runs ~5x faster than on the original Zero. There will not be a 1Gbyte version, which would need two memory die in the stack.
To deal with the extra heat of the new processor, the Zero 2 W’s PCB has thick internal copper layers – uncased Zero 2 W, the Pi can run the LINPACK linear-algebra test indefinitely in 20°C ambient, said Upton.
Also on-board is 2.4GHz IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.2, BLE, 1x USB 2.0 OTG, MicroSD card slot, Mini HDMI port and a CSI-2 camera connector, as well as solder places for the standard 40pin IO header, composite video and reset.
Capabilities include 1080p 30Hz H.264, MPEG-4 decode, 1080p 30Hz H.264 encode and OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0 graphics.
“Almost all cases and accessories designed for Zero should work perfectly with the new board,” according to Upton, “including our own case and selection of cables.”
To go with this Pi, there is a new official power supply: BS 1363 FTW which has a USB micro-B connector and is rated at 2.5A – more than the Zero 2 W needs and enough for a Pi 3B+ or 3B. It comes in US and Canada (type A), Europe (type C), India (type D), UK (type G), and Australia, New Zealand and China (type I) versions.
Nominal pricing is $15 for the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and $8 for its power supply. Production of the $5 Zero and $10 Zero W will continue. “We aim to keep Zero 2 W in production until at least January 2028,” said Upton.
The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W product page is here. They are built by Sony in Bridgend Wales.