yet another unannounced board revision

Looks like USB and Ethernet connectors have same misalignment.  But it's nice to get mounting holes and more GPIOs, along with fixing 100 Mb/s LED label.

EDIT: and maybe they fixed the 1V8 net.

Gee, just yesterday liz assured us that:

We do encourage speculation and discussion of what future Pis might be like - but we will ANNOUNCE them when they happen. Promise.  [link]

OK, I'll be nice -- it can be hard to synchronize announcements exactly with distributor global shipments.  That said, I'm still guessing that the 512MB unit will coincide with Rob Bishop's New World Hackspace Tour or may be announced earlier, perhaps when they officially announce the Holy Board revision.

I'm busting to post over there about "feature creep", "specs liable to change without notice" and an unjustifiable lack of communication from a tiny company using community based development (as opposed to an Apple, or a Samsung), but as the thread Re "Pi + holes" has been locked pending (supposedly) a front page announcement I shall wait a bit.

It would seem that depending on locale and supplier, a customer who ordered tomorrow may receive a Pi with / without polyfuses / D14 / holes and extra GPIO, so they may wish to delay their order a tad. Perhaps until 512M memory Pi start appearing...

So the Foundation will be aware of the sales ramifications of announcing revisions, but given the community thing do they really think that they can keep rolling out upgrades unnanounced without getting up the noses of people who don't want to be lumbered with old stock?

It also seems from the locked thread that the "cheeseboard" (the one with the holes) wasn't supposed to be out in the wild yet anyway. Don't these folks have any control over what's going on?

Hmmm, perhaps they don't. They are only a tiny charity dealing with multinationals, after all. Or perhaps they are just plain disorganised. Or perhaps they just don't get it.

I'm busting to post over there about "feature creep", "specs liable to change without notice" and an unjustifiable lack of communication from a tiny company using community based development (as opposed to an Apple, or a Samsung), but as the thread Re "Pi + holes" has been locked pending (supposedly) a front page announcement I shall wait a bit.

It would seem that depending on locale and supplier, a customer who ordered tomorrow may receive a Pi with / without polyfuses / D14 / holes and extra GPIO, so they may wish to delay their order a tad. Perhaps until 512M memory Pi start appearing...

So the Foundation will be aware of the sales ramifications of announcing revisions, but given the community thing do they really think that they can keep rolling out upgrades unnanounced without getting up the noses of people who don't want to be lumbered with old stock?

It also seems from the locked thread that the "cheeseboard" (the one with the holes) wasn't supposed to be out in the wild yet anyway. Don't these folks have any control over what's going on?

Hmmm, perhaps they don't. They are only a tiny charity dealing with multinationals, after all. Or perhaps they are just plain disorganised. Or perhaps they just don't get it.

Jonathan Garrish wrote:

 

I'm busting to post over there about "feature creep", "specs liable to change without notice" and an unjustifiable lack of communication from a tiny company using community based development (as opposed to an Apple, or a Samsung), but as the thread Re "Pi + holes" has been locked pending (supposedly) a front page announcement I shall wait a bit.

Not much point in making comments like that over there.  You'd probably just get banned.

It would seem that depending on locale and supplier, a customer who ordered tomorrow may receive a Pi with / without polyfuses / D14 / holes and extra GPIO, so they may wish to delay their order a tad. Perhaps until 512M memory Pi start appearing...

This is probably what RasPi Foundation was trying to avoid.  Maybe they waited until the old stock shipped before announcing the Holy Board changes, but alert RasPi community members saw the changes and "spilled the cat out of the beans", as Carmen Miranda would say.

I do like the extra GPIOs.  Maybe they brought out I2S like Morgaine requested long ago.  The RasPi thread mentions that something got erased from the silkscreen which would have spoiled the surprise.  It might be interesting to see what happens to RasPi prices at eBay.

Some good points there John. When supply of stock is out of your hands because there are two independent suppliers spread over many countries then performing a timely rollout of a new revision may be impossible - the recent RS stock shortage is evidence that the ebb and flow of the supply chain is understandably beyond the control of the Foundation. It's also likely the there are just as many people ordering Pi without reading the FAQ that there were at the end of February, so they probably won't even realise that there are differences straight away. However, there are plenty of smart folks in the community that will spot this stuff straight away and a constant drip of (obviously welcome) improvements may cause a few fingers to hesitate over that "add to basket" button.

It's tough. A roadmap would be nice, but that might mean punting obsolete versions out at a discount to clear the way for the latest and greatest, which I can't see happening. However, maintaining the current situation might have the same effect - prospective buyers with their finger on the pulse might decide to "wait and see". We have seen three hardware revisions in the last week or two, plus what might be a sneek preview of a 512M model, and there's still the 1v8 issue to tackle. Who knows what else they might toss in with that board revision.

So it's not unimagineable that  yourcomment about ebay price trends may even be applicable to current NOS. Not likely, but not impossible...

And then there's my (utterly unsubstantiated) suspicion about how much the RS / Farnell tail may have decided to start wagging the dog.

So much speculation, so little time!

Am liking the Carmen Miranda pastiche btw.

I actually want "feature creep", not only because the Pi has lots of problems which need to be fixed through revisions, but also as a matter of principle because "feature creep" is just another term for evolution and progress.

What I find distasteful though is the way it is being handled by the Foundation, responding with unprofessional quips when people discover changes, instead of making official announcements on the day that each revision is released for sale.

It seems to be treated as a cute personal game, instead of a professional responsibility.  Very sad.

I think this new board was made by Norcott, not in China,

based on what parts are used.

new (photoshoped):  https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8074630/IMG_1942.jpg

production: http://elinux.org/File:RaspiFront.JPG

beta: http://elinux.org/File:RpiFront.jpg

The beta board, made by Norcott, uses a blue audio connector,

ethernet connector with no writing on top, yellow c9,c11,c32, and

RG1 and RG2 made by ON Semiconductor.

The production board, made in China, uses a black audio connector,

ethernet connector with writing on top, black c9,c11,c32, and

RG1 and RG2 with no manufacturer's name.

The new board matches the beta board in all these respects.

I think it's likely that the 1.8V problem is fixed, since it wouldn't

make sense for Norcott to make a fresh batch of boards without

fixing that.  They probably also fixed the FCC/CE problem,

and may still be in the process of recertification,

which might explain why no official announcment yet.

Yeah, the giggling glee at how quickly users can "spot the revision" is tiring and very unprofessional.

The fundamental problem IMO is that the Pi is still not being sold with the understanding that it is a Beta. Caveat emptor. Buy it now for what it is, or wait a while.

With the exception of the Slashdot article, the techblogs are still punting it as some kind of ethereal miracle box, instead of providing examples of real world capabilities and limitations. This is unforgiveable, but I guess it's what you have to do to sell advertising space.

Feature creep with a product that works is usually ok. Mostly it's invisible to the user anyway and is undertaken only for reasons of cost, obsolescence of a particular component, or somesuch. It looks the same on the outside and probably functions in a broadly similar way (and uses the same driver). Major functional change is usually reserved for a brand new thinger - which will usually have some kind of updated appearance and a fancier name / more meaningless numbers in it's title. Maybe the hardware inside is little different, but the functionality is dictated in the most part by firmware anyway...

It's different with a beta. Changes are by their nature more fundamental and draw a line in the sand - meaning that the previous revision is possibly obsolete as regards compatibility. Software and hardware workarounds for those lame duck previous revisions will likely get tossed out. Your piece of beta hardware may get stuck in a time warp as developers race to create applications for the latest and greatest.

I think it's only fair that customers are made aware of this. It is "only" $35 after all, but give people the information to decide whether it's $35 well spent...

Edit: interesting post by coder27 while I was typing at snail's pace. Yeah, moving things around to make way for a couple of holes and some extra GPIO without fixing the 1V8 thing would make little sense. Maybe the promised announcement tomorrow will clarify things.

coder27 wrote:

 

I think this new board was made by Norcott, not in China, based on what parts are used.

Looks like it. The original (non-photoshopped) image of the new board is here: http://makeamillion.de/wp-content/uploads/IMG_1942.jpg, which has a little "Made in the UK" on it.

It'd be good to know which supplier has what board, as I presume most people would want this latest revision.

wow!  I wonder why it was so absolutely essential to photoshop that out.

I wonder if Norcott Sony will be doing more than just the first batch.

I also wonder how long it will take element14's factory in China

to switch over to the new revision. 

This new version seems timed with Maplin's projected

availability date in a month or so.

"What I find distasteful though is the way it is being handled by the Foundation, responding with unprofessional quips when people discover changes, instead of making official announcements on the day that each revision is released for sale."

I do agree the Foundation have made their fair share of mistakes but as the Foundation is not responsible for Manufacturing or Distribution then you are shooting at the wrong body on this one, yes?

Chris Evans wrote:

 

"What I find distasteful though is the way it is being handled by the Foundation, responding with unprofessional quips when people discover changes, instead of making official announcements on the day that each revision is released for sale."

 

I do agree the Foundation have made their fair share of mistakes but as the Foundation is not responsible for Manufacturing or Distribution then you are shooting at the wrong body on this one, yes?

I think Morgaine was commenting on some of liz's comments like "It's really good fun for us [to watch] them arrive and confuse you guys."  Yes, I realize that liz was being gamesome, and I haven't heard of anyone being grossly inconvenienced by the 2.0 changes.  So as they say, "no harm, no foul".

OTOH, how would you feel if you had designed a board that used the old GPIO pinout, manufactured a few thousand of them, and then discovered that there was a new revision being delivered before RasPi announced the change?  Wouldn't you have liked to have known that the change was being considered so you could plan ahead?  RasPi may not have precise control over distribution, but they do have control over what information is released, and when.