RPi Model A or B?

Question

Last year I purchased what I thought was a Model-A Raspberry Pi from Element-14/Newark (US). Since I later had a project that needed a Model-B, I bought one of those also, a few weeks ago.

Recently, I was checking out the differences between the two models and found that, according to various sources, The Model-B has 2 x USB ports (1 on the Model-A) and an Ethernet port (none on the Model-A) as well as a memory size difference.

Now my "Model-A" has both an Ethernet port and two USB ports so I'm confused. Is it, in fact a Model-B (which I didn't think was around when I bought the first one)? Is my information on the model differences wrong? I would appreciate it if someone could shed some light on this and clear up my confusion.

Also, what's the easiest way to check the amount of memory?

johnbeetem · Accepted Answer

You have a Model B. RasPi Model B was the first to ship. Originally RasPi was going to ship both, but there was so much demand for the Model B that they didn't bother with the Model A for a long time.

The RasPi Hardware Wiki has a page with the RasPi hardware history, with a table that maps board revision numbers to amount of memory: http://elinux.org/RPi_HardwareHistory

merlin13 · Answer

There is indeed some confusion that was created because in some places the original Model B (with only 256 MB RAM) was named Model A. In fact, as far as I know the models are:

- early Model B with 256 MB RAM, 2 USB, Ethernet - this one is incorrectly named Model A in some places

- late/current Model B 512 MB RAM, 2 USB, Ethernet - more memory than early Model B but otherwise identical (well, there is also a small difference in GPIO pins)

- Model A released last year, that indeed has only one USB, no Ethernet and only 256 MB of RAM.

Hope this helps.