Hardware Basics of Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

What is Raspberry Pi 3 Model B?

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B board is manufactured by the Raspberry Pi Foundation located in the UK. It is one of the most famous and widely used development board for the Internet of Things. Raspberry Pi 3 is the third generation Raspberry Pi. It is mainly based on the Broadcomm BCM2837 microprocessor. Raspberry Pi 3 mainly consists of 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core CPU, 1Gb ram, 802.11n Wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.1 and BLE(Bluetooth Low Energy). Raspberry Pi 3 also has 4 USB 2.0 ports, 40 GPIO pins, HDMI port, 10/100 Ethernet port, Combined 3.5mm audio jack, and composite video port, Camera interface, Display interface, and Micro SD card slot.

Basic Hardware of Raspberry PI 3 Model B

Hardware Information Raspberry PI 3



Raspberry PI 3 Model B Board contains

  1. SoC – The Processor used in Raspberry PI is provided by Broadcomm. The Broadcomm BCM2837 is the processor used in Raspberry PI 3. BCM2837 has 64 bit ARMv8 Cortex A53 quad-core architecture clocked at 1.2 GHz. It also has dual-core Videocore IV GPU clocked at 400MHz supporting OpenGL ES 2.0 hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode.
  2. 40 GPIO Pin header – GPIO Pins are General Purposes Input Output Pins. GPIO header consists of 2 5v power pins, 2 3.3v power pins, 8 ground pins, 26 GPIO pins, and 2 ID EEPROM pins. When GPIO pins are used as OUTPUT, pins provide 3.3v when setting to HIGH and off when set to LOW. GPIO pins can draw 50mA safely and distribute across all the pins; an individual GPIO pin can draw only 16mA safely. The pin diagram of GPIO pins is as below.Raspberry PI 3 GPIO Pins
  3. USB Port – Raspberry Pi3 Model B is equipped with 4 USB2.0 ports. The USB port on the Raspberry Pi is a USB (on-the-go) OTG port that is used to connect peripheral devices such as a keyboard, mouse, etc. Port power is limited to 100mA which is enough for keyboard and mouse. The devices requiring 500mA power can be connected but its reliability is not guaranteed, it can also cause Raspberry PI to reset.
  4. Ethernet 10/100 Port – The meaning of 10/100 Ethernet is that transmitting the speed of 10 to 100 Mbps. The Ethernet port on the Raspberry PI is connected to the LAN9514 controller. The work of the Ethernet controller is to connect Raspberry PI to the network for networking purposes.
  5. RCA Video/Audio Jack – Name RCA is derived from Radio Corporation of America. Raspberry PI 3 contains 3.5mm RCA A/V Jack which is used to transmit audio/video signals.
  6. CSI Camera Connector – Raspberry Pi has onboard 15 pin MIPI Camera Serial Interface. It is the interaction between the camera and the host processor.
  7. HDMI – High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port in Raspberry Pi is served the same purpose as it does on any other devices like laptop or TV. HDMI port is used to connect the HDMI display.
  8. Power Port – Power port is used to provide power supply to Raspberry Pi. Raspberry PI3 is powered by +5.1v micro USB cable. The current required by Raspberry PI depends on what you connect to it. Although, 2.5A power supply will be suitable to run Raspberry Pi. Power requirements may vary depending on type peripherals connected to it.
  9. DSI Display Connector – Raspberry Pi Display Serial Interface is used for connecting LCD using 15 pin ribbon wire. It is used to connect external LCD Display using DSI Port. The MIPI in the processor directly sends graphics data to LCD via a connector.
  10. USB and Ethernet Controller – Raspberry PI contains LAN9514 USB and Ethernet Controller. The 4 USB ports are connected to LAN9514 which is a controller for USB and Ethernet 10/100T. The LAN9514 itself is a single USB device connected directly to BCM2837.

Content and image source: raspberrypi.org

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