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Raspberry Pi Pico · Raspberry Pi official documentation photograph; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
Raspberry Pi · Pico
Pico
Raspberry Pi's first microcontroller board, built on its own RP2040 chip with two 133MHz Arm Cortex-M0+ cores, 264 KB of on-chip SRAM and 2 MB of flash; it runs MicroPython or C programs rather than Linux.
- Processor
- Raspberry Pi RP2040 (Arm Cortex-M0+)
- Clock
- 0.133 GHz
- Memory
- 264 KB
- Wi-Fi
- No
What reviewers say
Reviewers agree it is a cheap, small and well-documented microcontroller board that is easy to get started with in MicroPython, and very frugal with power. Both note there is no built-in wireless; Tom's Hardware found the C workflow tricky, and Jeff Geerling wanted pin labels on the top of the board.
From tomshardware.com and jeffgeerling.com
Specifications
Report a wrong or missing specPerformance
- Processor
- Raspberry Pi RP2040 (Arm Cortex-M0+)
- CPU cores
- 2
- Clock
- 0.133 GHz
- Memory
- 264 KB
- CPU
- Dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ at up to 133MHz; RP2040 made on a 40nm process
- Memory
- 264KB on-chip SRAM
- Storage
- 2MB on-board QSPI flash; UF2 bootloader in ROM
Connections
- Wi-Fi
- No
- Bluetooth
- No
- Ethernet
- No
- USB ports
- 1
- Display outputs
- 0
- GPIO pins
- 40
- PCIe
- No
- Ports
- Micro USB for power and data (USB 1.1 controller and PHY with host and device support); 2 × UART, 2 × SPI, 2 × I2C, 16 × PWM channels, 8 × PIO state machines
- GPIO
- 40-pin 0.1″ through-hole pads with castellated edges; 26 GPIO, 3 of which can be analogue inputs; header not fitted (Pico H has headers)
Design
- Size
- 21 × 51 mm
- Power
- 1.8–5.5V DC
- Size
- 21 × 51 × 1 mm
- Operating temperature
- −20°C to +85°C
Pros and cons
Pros
- 8 PIO state machines for custom interfaces
- Castellated edges, so it can be soldered to another board like a module
Cons
- Microcontroller, not a Linux computer; 264KB of SRAM
- No wireless (Pico W adds it)
- Micro USB, USB 1.1 only
Closest rivals
Model | Processor | Clock | Memory | Wi-Fi | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi RP2040 (Arm Cortex-M0+) | 0.133 GHz | 264 KB | Yes | Jun 2022 | |
| Raspberry Pi RP2350 (Arm Cortex-M33 or Hazard3 RISC-V) | 0.15 GHz | 520 KB | No | Aug 2024 | |
| Raspberry Pi RP2350 (Arm Cortex-M33 or Hazard3 RISC-V) | 0.15 GHz | 520 KB | Yes | Nov 2024 |
Newer model: Pico 2.
Sources
- pip-assets.raspberrypi.com/categories/610-raspberry-pi-pico/documents/RP-008308…
- pip-assets.raspberrypi.com/categories/610-raspberry-pi-pico/documents/RP-008307…
- github.com/raspberrypi/documentation/blob/master/documentation/asciidoc/compute…
- raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-silicon-pico-now-on-sale
- Raspberry Pi Pico board with RP2040 chips on a blue studio background: Raspberry Pi official product gallery; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
- Raspberry Pi Pico boards and breadboard project beside the second-edition MicroPython guide: Raspberry Pi official product gallery; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
- Raspberry Pi Pico connected on a breadboard beside a laptop displaying its documentation: Raspberry Pi official product gallery; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
- Raspberry Pi Pico board beside the HackSpace launch issue on a workbench: Raspberry Pi official launch photograph; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
- Raspberry Pi Pico board, published launch angle photograph: Raspberry Pi official launch photograph; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
- Raspberry Pi Pico boards in supplied tape-and-reel packaging: Raspberry Pi official launch photograph; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
- Raspberry Pi Pico boards and breadboard project beside the original MicroPython guide: Raspberry Pi official launch photograph; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
- Raspberry Pi Pico with fitted headers and SWD connector (Pico H configuration), top angle: Raspberry Pi official launch photograph; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
- Raspberry Pi Pico with fitted headers (Pico H configuration), underside angle: Raspberry Pi official launch photograph; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
- Raspberry Pi Original Pico board with RP2040 chips and component tape: Raspberry Pi official launch photograph; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
- Raspberry Pi Pico board and its RP2040 microcontroller, supplied close-up: Raspberry Pi official launch photograph; complete supplied canvas, background and native alpha retained.
