no-197 au-04

Overview: All the chips of the Raspberry Pi board

1. The heart of the Raspberry Pi 4, the 4 ARM 1.5GHz quad-core Cortex A72 Soc (System-On-A-Chip). It contains the processor as well as the video core VI graphics unit.
2. The working memory (LPDDR4 RAM). Depending on the model, this is 1/2/4 or 8 GB of memory.
3. The wireless chip for WLAN (2.4 and 5 GHz) and Bluetooth, which now also supports Bluetooth 5.0.
4. This chip connects the network interface with the CPU.
5. USB controller with USB 3.0 support.

The chips

On the board there are two important chips that do all the work that are the number 1 and 2. You will find it on the pictures see above. Let us look at some detailed information about this.

1. The Processor

Let us start with the processor, which is of the Broadcom BCM2711 type. It is not a normal CPU but an integration of CPU, GPU and RAM. These three components are all on a single, highly integrated chip, which is also called SoC (System-On-A-Chip). Due to its small size, it is perfectly suitable for such small devices. The GPU that is responsible for the graphics output can process very high video quality. The uses the HEVC (H.265) encoded 4K videos with 60 frames per second (2160p60) smoothly decode and play on a 4K display. The processor has a memory that is fixed and not expandable and is shared between the CPU and GPU. However, it is possible to specify the memory separately in the setup.

2. The Memory

The memory LPDDR4 SDRAM which is located to the right of the processor. The shape looks like a microchip package. the new Raspberry Pi 4 is available in three different models, each offering a different memory option. The new board can come with either 1GB, 2GB, 4GB or 8GB of RAM.

3. Wireless Chip

The wireless is provided in a wireless module. This offering dual band 2.4 and 5 GHz wireless networking as well as Bluetooth LE and Bluetooth 5.0.

4. – 5. USB and Ethernet

The VLI VL805 (USB Chip) which provides a USB 3.0 Hub over a PCI Express bus. This PCI Express bus provided through the new Broadcom BCM54213PE (Ethernet Chip) a separate bus to the USB traffic. The Raspberry Pi board have both Gigabit Ethernet and two USB 3.0 ports as well as two USB 2.0 ports. 

Warning!
In a closed case, the Raspberry Pi 4 gets hot even without load. For the best processor performance is it necessary to keep the processor temperature low. There are two ways to cool the processor: active and passive cooling

The processor temperature can be displayed in the LXTerminal of the Raspberry Pi Desktop.

1. Open LXTerminal
2. Type the command below. Run below command

watch vcgencmd measure_temp

For more please check out the article 199 active and passive cooling