New Raspberry Pi Adds Two USB Ports

Raspberry Pi scion Eben Upton has announced an important new revision of the Raspberry Pi board. The new board is a revision of the popular Raspberry Pi B and is known as the Raspberry Pi B+. The most noticable change is the presence of 4 (rather than 2) USB ports. The shortage of USB ports was a common complaint  with Raspberry Pi users. Once you plugged in a keyboard and mouse, the 2-port design left no room for additional USB devices. Most instruction manuals recommended a separate powered USB hub, which added complication and significant expense to the cost of the ultra-inexpensive Raspberry Pi.
The B+ board also brings other changes, including more GPIO pins (40 instead of 24) and a micro-SD memory card instead of the previous friction-fit SD card. Notably absent is the RCA video connector found on previous Rasp Pi designs.
The new board is similar in size to the previous model, but it is 2 millimeters wider, meaning that the old cases probably won't fit. Aside from these changes, most of the other specs are quite similar to the previous Model B boards (which is why this one is B+ instead of Raspberry Pi C). The system uses the same Broadcom processor with 512MB of RAM. The retail price is also the same, with a recommended price of US$ 35, EUR 29.9, or UK£ 26.
Upton said the Raspberry Pi Foundation will continue to support the Model B board “to ensure continuity of supply for our industrial customers.” Although the Raspberry Pi was developed for educational purposes, it has gained an unexpected following as a tool for industrial prototypes and small-volume manufacturing.