14 DAY TRIAL // Raspberry Pi OS has just reached another important milestone, as the operating system is now available in 64-bit for the supported devices.
Previously available only in 32-bit configuration, Raspberry Pi OS in 64-bit opens the door to significant performance improvements, especially because it makes it possible for devices with over 4GB of RAM to take advantage of the full hardware power.
Furthermore, it comes with substantial compatibility refinements, as the Raspberry Pi Foundation itself explained in an announcement today.
“We’ve come to realise that there are reasons to choose a 64-bit operating system over a 32-bit one. Compatibility is a key concern: many closed-source applications are only available for arm64, and open-source ones aren’t fully optimised for the armhf port. Beyond that there are some performance benefits intrinsic to the A64 instruction set: today, these are most visible in benchmarks, but the assumption is that these will feed through into real-world application performance in the future,” Gordon Hollingworth explained.
Download links already live for all users
The 64-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS can be used on Raspberry Pi Zero 2, Raspberry Pi 3, and Raspberry Pi 4, whereas all the other models only support 32-bit.
“The ARMv8-A architecture, which encompasses the 64-bit AArch64 architecture and associated A64 instruction set, was first introduced into the Raspberry Pi line with Raspberry Pi 3 in 2016. From that point on, it has been possible to run a full 64-bit operating system on our flagship products, and many third-party operating systems are available. However, we have continued to build our Raspberry Pi OS releases on the 32-bit Raspbian platform, aiming to maximise compatibility between devices and to avoid customer confusion,” the RPF explains.
The new version of the operating system is already available for download today, and you can find it on this page.