Microsoft is developing a free version of the upcoming Windows 10 operating system supporting Raspberry Pi to be able to get into the Internet of Things (IoT).
"We're excited to announce that we are expanding our Windows Developer Program for IoT by delivering a version of Windows 10 that supports Raspberry Pi 2. This release of Windows 10 will be free for the Maker community through the Windows Developer Program for IoT," Microsoft announced on its dev center blog.
Early this week, a report from the UK-based Raspberry Pi Foundation announced that they were working with the Redmond tech giant for the past six months to come up with the joint project.
"For the last six months we've been working closely with Microsoft to bring the forthcoming Windows 10 to Raspberry Pi 2. Microsoft will have much more to share over the coming months. The Raspberry Pi 2-compatible version of Windows 10 will be available free of charge to makers," the official blog of the basic computer manufacturing foundation stated.
Reports mention that the upcoming Windows 10 will support the foundation's newest Raspberry Pi 2 ARM-based chipset that was unveiled in the market recently. The new Raspberry Pi 2 shows a lot of improvements compared to its predecessor, since the new one is expected to perform six times better than the earlier releases because of the Broadcom BCM2836 system-on-chip that has a VideoCore IV GPU containing four 900 MHz ARMv7 Cortex-A7 cores. It also has a bigger memory, which is set at 1 GB LPDDR2 SDRAM.
Raspberry Pi 2 is also reportedly compatible with the earlier Raspberry Pi 1 release.
The collaboration is Microsoft's way of paving a better way for younger developers and coders to succeed in the market.
"We see the maker community as an amazing source of innovation for smart, connected devices that represent the very foundation for the next wave of computing. and we're excited to be a part of this community," Microsoft further said.
Raspberry Pi Foundation reportedly sold over 4.5 million credit-card sized Raspberry Pi units since February 2012 to various student developers, young hobbyists, as well as computer development pioneers. The single board computers sold for only $35 in the market.
