Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton has confirmed that users shouldn’t expect a new entry in the company’s flagship product series for at least another year.
Making the comments during an interview (opens in new tab) with Christopher Barnatt, aka ExplainingComputers (via The Register (opens in new tab)), Upton expanded by saying that 2023 is very much a “recovery year” from the effects the Covid-19 pandemic has had on global manufacturing and supply chains.
He appeared to put a dampener on hopes of new product launches next year despite all but confirming in November that a new product in “the hundred series” of all-in-one computers, that started with the Raspberry Pi 400, could also be on the way.
Raspberry Pi shortages
Back then, Upton appeared to suggest that the RP2040, Raspberry Pi’s first processor produced in-house, was on track to ease part shortages. Now, however, we should temper our expectations and let the company walk before it can run (again).
Upton believes that designing, manufacturing and shipping a new Pi is technically possible for 2023, but doesn’t believe that it should try to achieve that in case of more trouble.
“You know what would really be a disaster? If we tried to introduce some sort of Raspberry Pi 5 product and couldn’t ramp [production] properly because of constraint.”
Though he didn’t go into too much technical detail, he did note that “some of [the supply chain issues] are about packaging, some of them are about test capacity, some are about substrates.”
In November, Upton claimed that Pi shortages were expected to abate “within a year”, and it’s only now becoming clear that this wasn’t just a conservative estimate. In this latest interview, he claimed that it would likely take until the second half of 2023 before supply chains can resume production as normal.
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