Raspberry Pi 3 A+

Raspberry Pi 3 A+ : reduced size of famous Raspberry Pi 3 with still so much power under the roof

Why did the Raspberry-Pi foundation did created the Raspberry-Pi 3 A+? Will this been appropriate to have a Pi without Ethernet connexion and with only one USB port ?
Well, with a bit a thinking this is a good idea. Let me explaining you why!

Nowaday, many nano computer just use the WiFi connexion to acces the network. It is quite usual to have a Raspberry-Pi where the Ethernet port did never seen the Ethernet cable.

On the other hand, the Raspberry Pi have WiFi interface en bluetooth integrated to the board, so the USB port can still available.
Keyboard and mouse can be connected via bluetooth, once again, the USB port is still free for use.

So, the Pi 3 A+ is still meaningful... and would be able to fulfill usual Pi 3 B+ functions.

Raspberry Pi 3 A+ : what's useful on the board ?

Well, almost everything from Pi 3 B+ is still available!
We will start with the Broadcom BCM2837, the same as the Pi 3B+ clocked @ 1.4 Ghz.

Next, we still have the standard HDMI port to connect your Pi on an HDMI monitor / TV.

The CSI port for the CameraPi and the DSI port for the official Raspberry Pi TFT touch screen.
The 4 points stereo port available for stereo audio output and video composite signal.
Finally, the 40 pins GPIO is available like every Pi since the Pi B+. So this Pi 3 A+ is still a great for prototyping electronic project or to add extension board.

On the Power Supply side, the Pi 3 A+ is still powered throught a microUSB port (5V @ 2.5A).

What's missing on the board ?

• The HUB USB of the Pi 3B+ did disappears (so only one USB port remain et the Ethernet port did left).
• The RAM is reduced to 512 Mb (the Pi 3 B+ has 1Gb of RAM).
  512 Mb is usually enough for most of the apps running on a Pi.
• And the board is also smaller... the Form Factor is the Raspberry-Pi A's one :-)

Technical details

• Broadcom BCM2837B0, Cortex-A53
  64-bit SoC @ 1.4 GHz
• 512MB LPDDR2 SDRAM
• 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz IEE 802.11.b/g/n/ac wireless LAN,
  Bluetooth 4.2/BLE
• Extended 40-pin GPIO header
• 1 × full size HDMI
• MIPI DSI display port
• MIPI CSI camera port
• 4 pole stereo output and composite video port
• Advance Multimedia
  H.264, MPEG-4 decode (1080p30);
  H.264 encode (1080p30);
  OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0 graphics
• Micro SD card : for the operating system and data storage
• Power Supply: 5 V/2.5 A DC via micro USB connector
• Operating temperature: 0–50°C
• Compliance: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-a-plus