Popular Raspberry Pi 5 The single-board microcomputer should be available in 2024, with approximately 70,000 boards per week being manufactured as we write, a figure that should hopefully rise to 90,000 over the course of the year.
That's the promise of Raspberry Pi CEO and birth mother Eben Upton, who shared the secrets of the pharaohs with Tom Hardware.
Upton attributed the rise in manufacturing figures partly to Sony (yes, that one) operating the 'bakery' (laughs!), in Pencoed, Wales, where all the Raspberry Pis dads and moms live happily ever after.
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To make us jealous, Upton told Tom's Hardware: “[Reaching 90,000 units manufactured a week]“It is mainly because more test heads have been brought online in the automatic test pods.” Someone reading this must know what that means, but we like it.
Although he stated that Raspberry Pi 4s were also experiencing similar production increases, he did not have exact figures. Poor Raspberry Pi 4, the only thing they're missing is asking for their half of the inheritance and it's basically biblical.
Tom's Hardware asked Upton why more Pis are being manufactured. To this he stated that his aggressive pace of manufacturing would continue until morale improves “Pending orders are fulfilled and the channel (Approved Resellers and others) is in a good stock position.”
Unfortunately, the slippery character managed to hide in a refrigerator while muttering about those nosy tech journalists before we could discover the real, dark, and more interesting motive behind it.
Analysis: Hello approved resellers and others, friend.
Can you get a Raspberry Pi right now, in January 2024? Yes. I'm pleased to report that the shortage of this niche hobbyist project, which was in full swing during the worst of the bubonic Covid-19 pandemic, has eased considerably in recent months.
In fact, opening Pandora's box was the main catalyst for me both to get one and being anointed, by my struggle through the Nine Circles of linuxas this esteemed publication's Raspberry Pi correspondent (even if you want to dispute this, we can at least check the spelling of a slogan).
And since I can now claim a certain air of authority on this topic, I will say that yes, the Raspberry Pi is popular, so you may find that the exact Pi with the exact RAM configuration you want is not immediately available from your Reseller Friendly Neighborhood approved. I, for one, had to subscribe to stock alerts to get my Pi 4 Model Bbut I didn't have to wait that long, and I only had to wait because I'm bourgeois trash and I wanted 8 gigabytes of RAM.
Fast forward to now, consulting the same reseller I bought my Model B from last year, it's pretty much the same situation: a Pi 5 is available now, if you're willing to opt for “only” 4GB of RAM. Honestly, if you want a Raspberry Pi so badly, just dig out the “numbers go crazy” mental worm that lives in your own eyeball and settle for a machine that fits in the palm of your hand and could probably execute a manned space mission no matter what configuration you buy it in. (Note from the Legal Department: DO NOT try this at home.)
Or just do what the rest of us “enthusiasts” do when we can't immediately get the shiny thing we want: Go to the PR machine to get a freebie. Turn off the router for a moment and look at a butterfly.
