The ARMv8-A architecture, which encompasses the 64-bit AArch64 architecture and related A64 instruction set, became first added to the Raspberry Pi line with Raspberry Pi 3 in 2016. From that advent on, it has been viable to run a full 64-bit operating system on their flagship new merchandise offerings, and many third-party operating systems are available for download. Although, the Raspberry Pi corporation persisted to construct their Raspberry Pi OS releases on the 32-bit Raspbian platform, aiming to maximize compatibility among devices and to keep away from purchaser confusion.
| Product | Processor | ARM core | Debian/Raspbian ARM port (maximum) | Architecture width |
| Raspberry Pi 1 | BCM2835 | ARM1176 | arm6hf | 32 bit |
| Raspberry Pi 2 | BCM2836 | Cortex-A7 | armhf | 32 bit |
| Raspberry Pi Zero | BCM2835 | ARM1176 | arm6hf | 32 bit |
| Raspberry Pi Zero 2 | BCM2710 | Cortex-A53 | arm64 | 64 bit |
| Raspberry Pi 3 | BCM2710 | Cortex-A53 | arm64 | 64 bit |
| Raspberry Pi 4 | BCM2711 | Cortex-A72 | arm64 | 64 bit |
As you can see from the deck above, it is simple to be stressed about which products will assist which Debian/Raspbian ports. using arm6hf (Raspbian’s by-product of armhf with ARMv7-most effective instructions eliminated but floating-point commands retained) offers us with a running device on the way to run on every tool we’ve ever manufactured, all of the manner lower back to 2011.
But we’ve come to comprehend that there are motives to select a 64-bit operating device over a 32-bit one. Compatibility is a key challenge: many closed-source applications are only available for arm64, and open-supply ones aren’t absolutely optimized for the armhf port. beyond that there are some performance benefits intrinsic to the A64 practice set: nowadays, those are most visible in benchmarks, but the assumption is that those will feed via into real-global utility overall performance within the destiny.
A more theoretical problem is that 32-bit hints only let you cope with 4GB of reminiscence. On Raspberry Pi four, we use the ARM large physical deal with Extension (LPAE) to access up to 8GB of reminiscence, problem to the constraint that any system is constrained to having access to 3GB (we reserve the pinnacle 1GB of the digital cope with area for the kernel). only a few procedures require more reminiscence than this: happily, Chromium, which might be the maximum reminiscence-intensive utility in Raspberry Pi OS, spawns a procedure consistent with tab. However, some use instances will benefit from being capable of allocating the entire memory of an 8GB Raspberry Pi four from an unmarried process.
The 64-bit version of Chromium, established by means of default, has no version of the WidevineCDM library, and consequently, it isn’t always feasible to play streaming media such as Netflix or Disney+. To instead pick the 32-bit model simply do the subsequent within a terminal window:
sudo apt install chromium-browser:armhf libwidevinecdm0To return to the 64-bit version
sudo apt install chromium-browser:arm64 libwidevinecdm0-So, head to the downloads page and grab your copy of 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS today. Let us know in the comments of your use case benefits (or suffers!) from the move to 64-bit.
