Three years after the introduction of the Pi 5 we anticipate a new addition to the Raspberry Pi family, namely the Raspberry Pi 6. Here are the key features to expect.
More Power
The Raspberry Pi 6 is rumoured to adopt the ARM Cortex-A78 (or even the A720) architecture.
Therefore we are likely to benefit from a significant increase from the current 2.4 GHz clock speed to around 3.0 GHz.
This means the Pi 6 will become an even better candidate for a can-do-anything desktop replacement, especially so when the Pi 600 breaks cover.
Integrated Neural Processing Unit
However, by far the biggest and most important feature is the likely incorporation of a native 12 TOPS Neural Processing Unit (NPU).
This not only removes the need for a HAT+ module, such as the $100 Raspberry Pi AI HAT+, but also ensures a faster interface, lower latency and better power efficiency than before.
In fact, with an processing capability of many TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second), it would easily allow Pi 6 owners to run a huge range of local LLMs (Large Language Models), plus numerous advanced computer vision applications.
Other Key Features
Using the smaller (7nm or 5nm) chip fabricate design will facilitate cooler runtime operation despite the performance increases.
Maximum RAM configuration are now likely to top out at 32GB, compared with the current 16GB.
Memory storage performance could also be significantly boosted, from around 100 MB/s to many thousands MB/s.
Networking upgrades are pretty much guaranteed, probably to Wi-Fi 6E or even Wi-Fi 7. And maybe a 2.5Gb Ethernet port.
We can also expect enhanced USB Power Delivery to power a wider range of peripherals and add-ons.
And the retention of the 40-pin GPIO header will ensure backward compatibility for applications and maker-projects based on the Pi 5 and Pi 4 boards.
When and How Much?
Late 2026 is the best guess for a Pi 6 announcement, that's 3 years after the Pi 5 was released.
Obviously all this extra capability will come at an increased cost. But exactly what price is very difficult to predict, especially as (at the time of posting) the cost of RAM continues to escalate.
