The Raspberry Pi mini computer has a 700 MHz Broadcom BCM2835 ARM11 processor. But users have been adjusting the voltage and overclocking the chip to run at higher speeds for months.

Up until now, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has supported doing that — but warned that it could potentially damage the hardware, and that it would therefore void the warranty.

Now the group has come up with an official “turbo mode” which lets you overclock the CPU without voiding the $35 computer’s warranty.

Raspberry Pi

Turbo mode offers 5 different presets, with speeds as high as 1 GHz, for a 50 percent performance boost.

Even at the highest clock speeds, the processor doesn’t run hotter than 185 degrees, which means adjusting the voltage shouldn’t cause any damage to the processor.

The new turbo mode features are included in the latest Raspbian Linux operating system. There’s also a new temperature and frequency widget which helps you monitor the CPU state, support for WiFi out of the box, and audio improvements.

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3 replies on “Raspberry Pi introduces 1 GHz turbo mode overclocking option”

  1. Wow they must realize that with the price falling for the MK802 ($45 shipped as of today) that they are pretty much screwed

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