Most recent Raspberry Pi single-board computers have 64-bit processors, but up until recently the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s custom Linux distribution designed for the small, inexpensive PCs was only available in a 32-bit version. But last week saw the official release of Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit, which is compatible with the Raspberry PI 3 and newer devices.
It turns out that the move to 64-bit can make a big difference in performance, at least for some tasks. Phoronix ran a series of benchmarks and found that across the board, a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB of RAM was nearly 50% faster when running the 64-bit version of the operating system.
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit vs. 64-bit Performance [Phoronix]
When announcing last week that Raspberry Pi OS is now available in 64-bit, the developers may have undersold the performance gains – benchmark performance shows a 48% average improvement, although real-world results will vary depending on the task.
Mobian Linux coming to the Fairphone 4 [@MobianLinux]
The Debian-based mobile Linux distribution is currently available for a handful of devices including the PinePhone and PinePhone Pro, Purism Librem 5, and OnePlus 6. But developers have begun porting it to the Fairphone 4, a smartphone designed with repairability and sustainability in mind.
Less than 1hr from the start of our @fosdem talk, we wanted to share a small surprise: this, ladies and gentlemen, is a @Fairphone 4 running @MobianLinux 🙂
Still far from full support, but kudos to @z3ntu for their work on mainlining this device!#fosdem2022 #mobilelinux pic.twitter.com/W0ot3FYO2a— Mobian (@MobianLinux) February 5, 2022
Troubled Toshiba to Split Into Two Firms Instead of Three [Bloomberg]
A few months after announcing plans to split into three companies, Toshiba now plans to divide in half instead by spinning off its devices (including chips) business and selling “non-core” assets.
GrapheneOS is working with a hardware vendor on a phone that could ship with the software [@GrapheneOS]
The makers of GrapheneOS, a security-hardened fork of Android, says it’s working with a hardware vendor to on a secure device (probably a phone) that could ship with GrapheneOS, but which will be open to alternate operating systems.
We’re going to be collaborating with a hardware vendor to get a device produced with comparable security and support for alternative operating systems as Pixels.
We can’t publish details right now but we’re optimistic about it and hope to have real news about it in a few months.
— GrapheneOS (@GrapheneOS) February 7, 2022
IBM PalmTop PC110 Booting into AOSC OS/Retro [AOSC / YouTube]
AOSC OS/Retro is a GNU/Linux distro designed to run on old hardware. Here it is running on an IBM Palm Top PC 1100, a handheld with a 4.7 inch screen, a 33 MHz 486SL processor, and 20MB of RAM.
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If you run a 64 bit benchmark on a 32 and 64 bit OS it will run 50% slower on the 32 bit. Real world issue? Unless you are running a 64 bit application you will see no difference except for a little more memory used on the 64 bit OS
In case anyone hasn’t heard about rpilocator.com, I thought I’d mention it. If you’re needing a pi, it’s not a bad site to monitor…and it works pretty well. The problem is…there pretty much is zero inventory of anything raspberry pi 4 across the world. For now…ebay is your best bet, just be prepared to pay about $150 for a rpi4 w/ 4GB’s of memory. Personally speaking…I’d just pass until prices become reasonable…that is, unless you really need one.
Best,
Steven B.
Toshiba really bit the big one when they bought OCZ Storage Solutions. OCZ was plagued with tech support issues and RMA problems.
Well thats retarded! Could have done 64 bit many years ago, but due to their overcaution and fear of rocking the boat, skipping their homework and not even doing benchmarks!
They finally got with the program. Even Blackberry ditched 32 bit a few years ago.
Up until the pi 3, there wasn’t a 64 bit SOC on the pi. Apps for the pi were all 32 bit. In order to stay backwards compatible they kept 32 bit. Their biggest hurdle was the proprietary driver’s for the GPU. The manufacturer only recently released a 64 bit driver. They have had a beta version of the 64 bit piOS for a good 3 years
I threw out my RPi Zero and Zero W boards after getting a replacement RPi Zero 2 W board. I paid $5 for the Zero and $10 for the Zero W back in the day. They were super slow anyways… good riddance 32bit boards!