The Industrial Raspberry Pi Forum

Hi all – I'm curious about the origin of the chip used in the Pi 4, the Broadcom BCM2711. Was it designed specifically for the Pi? I can't find any reference to it on the Broadcom website, which is strange, nor any record of its use in any other device, e.g. a smartphone.

I assumed that chips used by single board computers are made affordable by first being used in more traditional commercial roles, like smartphones or routers or something. Could Broadcom actually have designed this chip for the Pi? Anyone know more about it?

Thanks.

The original BCM2835 was a product of Broadcom's set-top box unit.

BCM2836 (Raspberry Pi 2), BCM2837 (Raspberry Pi 3), BCM2838 (Raspberry Pi 4) appear to be custom designs by Broadcom. See e.g. the BCM2836 spec. Money quote: "The document describes the implementation of the Quad-A7 core on top of the 2708 project resulting in a new (BCM2836) product."