How to Start a New RP2350 PCB Project?

There are many development board options for students, new designers, and embedded developers. Among all the options, Raspberry Pi single-board computers and microcontroller boards are arguably some of the most popular. Raspberry Pi hardware platforms support features such as cameras, display adapters, network adapters, and plenty of GPIOs for connecting peripheral devices. Because these platforms are so popular, there are many open-source projects that developers can leverage, and developers can run applications on Raspberry Pi via an embedded Linux kernel. 

As of 2024, the newest Raspberry Pi product is the RP2350, an Arm microcontroller that supports a variety of peripherals and is competitive with many commercial microcontrollers. If you're planning to use an RP2350 as your system host, CELUS has resources that can help you quickly start a new design based on the RP2350. Inside the CELUS design platform, you'll find a minimum viable RP2350 design which you can clone and modify to suit your needs. 

Let's dive into the specs on the RP2350 and take a look at the minimum viable design needed to build a PCB with the RP2350. 

Raspberry Pi RP2350 Specifications 

The RP2350 is a family of four microcontrollers built on a dual Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller architecture that includes high I/O count and comes in a compact QFN package. The unique architecture also includes dual Hazard3 RISC-V cores that can be selected in software or by programming the on-chip OTP memory. Additional features in the RP2350 include 150 MHz clock, DSP instructions in the dual Arm cores, built-in SRAM memory, watchdog timer, power management features, and many additional features as detailed in the device datasheet.

The new RP2350 is actually a family of part numbers with different features and pin counts. The two variants are the RP2350 and RP2354, which come with the same base set of features and packages. The four part numbers in the RP2350 family are detailed below. 

Raspberry Pi users should already be familiar with the RP2040. Compared to the RP2040, the RP2350 microcontrollers offer higher clock speed (150 MHz vs. 133 MHz), more GPIOs (up to 48 vs. 26 for RP2040), and more analog inputs in some part numbers (up to 8 on the RP2354). Thanks to the existing development tools for Raspberry Pi hardware platforms, designers can easily take their existing applications built for the RP2040 microcontroller and run them on the new RP2350. To help developers build new systems, the RP2350 is also available on the new Raspberry Pi Pico 2. 

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 Overview  

There is also a new version of the very popular Raspberry Pi Pico which contains the new RP2350. The new Raspberry Pi Pico 2 development board includes the RP2350A microcontroller but in the same form factor as the original Pico dev board with the RP2040. The new Pico 2 dev board also includes a castellated module design for accessing I/Os, a USB port, 4 MB on-board Flash memory, and 4 available analog inputs. 

 To get started with application development on the RP235x using the Pico 2 dev board, download the MicroPython SDK or the C/C++ SDK.

If you’re upgrading from the older Pico 1 board, the new Pico 2 board is hardware-compatible and software-compatible with your existing Raspberry Pi Pico 1 application. This gives developers a simple way to migrate existing applications onto the new RP2350.

Minimum Viable RP235x Design in CELUS 

The new Pico 2 dev board is an excellent platform for prototyping, developing proof of concept, and testing embedded firmware for a new product. However, real products most often need a custom circuit board with all parts and modules integrated into a single assembly. If you want to develop a real product around an RP2350 or RP2354 microcontroller, you will need to choose one of these part numbers and start adding components to your design to make it viable. 

To help designers get started with an RP235x part number, CELUS has created a minimum viable design for RP235x part numbers. Users can get started by creating a clone of the RP235x Minimum Viable Board featured project. Inside this project, users will find CUBOs for an RP2350/RP2354 microcontroller, a DC-DC converter circuit, a USB connector, and push buttons and LEDs for interacting with GPIOs. 

To prioritize one of the RP235x microcontrollers, right-click on the Microcontroller block and click “Select CUBOs” from the dropdown menu. This will open up a list of available CUBOs showing the RP2350 and RP2354 microcontroller options. 

Once one of the RP235x CUBOs is selected and locked, you can go back to the Design Canvas and add more functional blocks into your block diagram. The CELUS Design Platform can continue updating your design and generating connections to the RP235x microcontroller circuit as you add new functional blocks into your design. 

CELUS offers a totally new approach to system-level design and helps speed up the design process for complex components. To help users get started with the RP235x Minimum Viable Project and to learn more about customizing your designs in CELUS, watch our video tutorial. 

With the CELUS Design Platform, designers can speed up their development efforts with components from their favorite manufacturers. By defining components and their associated circuitry as CUBOs, CELUS helps reduce risk for designers and allows generated designs to be immediately used in industry-standard ECAD tools. This shifts a designer’s focus from circuit design to system design and allows a designer to more efficiently integrate diverse features into a new product. 

To get access to these RP2350 design resources, sign up for CELUS today.