Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller can be purchased separately for $1

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released its RP2040 microcontroller separately. The chip costs 1 dollar each. At the beginning of this year, the foundation announced the 133MHz microcontroller and a complete module in the form of the Raspberry Pi Pico has already appeared.

Raspberry Pi RP2040

The standalone RP2040 microcontroller is intended for people who want to make their own module. It is exactly the same chip as the one on the Raspberry Pi Pico, which appeared at the beginning of this year. Raspberry Pi vendors will sell the microcontroller for $1 each. The complete Pi Pico module costs 4.50 euros.

Manufacturers such as Adafruit, Arduino, Sparkfun and Pimoroni could already buy the separate microcontroller in bulk and have previously released products with the RP2040. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is now also selling the chip individually to consumers.

The RP2040 consists of two Arm Cortex-M0+ cores with a clock speed of 133MHz. There is 264 kilobytes of memory on the soc. The die is made at 40nm and has dimensions of 2x2mm; the complete soc comes in a 7x7mm QFN56 package.

1.3 million Raspberry Pi Pico modules

According to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, more than 600,000 Pi Pico modules have been shipped since January and another 700,000 have been ordered. Hundreds of people have asked the foundation to deliver the RP2040 separately and that is why the organization has decided to sell 40,000 pieces separately. The plan was actually to do that three months later. In the fall, the foundation says it will be able to supply both the Pi Pico and the separate microcontroller in larger volumes.