Raspberry Pi

Preview by: LADIESWEB

Ladiesweb Dec 10, 2011

What is the Raspberry Pi?
The Raspberry Pi is a full on computer that will cost you $35. No, really, it's a full computer, and it's only $35.
You won't be able to run the latest games on these computers, but that's not the point of these computers. These computers are being made by a charity out of the UK, they hope to make these computers available to schools for kids to learn on. The project went through a lot of trouble to get the cheapest parts that are still reliable, to get these prices down. They want these machines to be available to anyone who wants one because they want kids to learn how computers work.
Since these boards are affordable to most people at $35 for the most expensive model, the Raspberry Pi people hope that it will allow kids to get one of their own and get them learning how to really use computers, more than just for playing video games and going to facebook. The hope is that kids will go back to the old hacker way, not the way hacker is used today, but the way it used to be, to discover and learn how to get things to work for you.

This computer comes with many computer code compilers in it, ready to go. Also, this computer runs Linux as its Operating System. Though the hope is to get kids using these, and wanting to learn with them, the Raspberry Pi people understand that it will take some time for that to happen, instead these first boards are more for the hobbyists. The hobbyists are from people like me, who can can just about create a "Hello World!" program, to those that have big plans of intergrating these boards into devices and writing full programs for them. Both sides of the hobbyists seem just as excited about this board as the other.

I refer to this computer as a board because that's what it is, there is no case, just a naked board, the size of a credit card. It requires no cooling, and can do quite a bit. You can find videos on youtube of people running quake 3 on this thing.

The R-Pi will have two video outputs, an HDMI and a composite video output. I think having composite is a great idea because it means that televisions, televisions without HDMI that is, can be used as the monitor. These are being marketed as cheap computers, so being able to use your own TV as your monitor is a nice solution to not having to go out and buy a monitor.

The R-Pi will also have 2 USB ports, a power port, 1 audio jack, an ethernet port, and uses an SD card as storage. The USB ports are standard USB 2. Because of the power limitations, if you're planning to use a USB hub for more ports it sounds like you'll want to be sure that you're using a powered hub. The power port for the board is a 5V micro-USB. I like this because it means I can use my Kindle charger for this, and most people have this same thing from one device or another around their house these days, and even if they don't they are only a dollar or two off Amazon.

The Raspberry Pi will come in two models to begin with, Model A and Model B. Model A does not have the ethernet port, has 128MB of RAM, and has only one USB port. The model A does draw less power though, 500mA (2.5 Watt). Model B will have 256MB of RAM, and draws 700mA (3.5Watt). While Model B will cost $35, Model A will cost less, at $25.

What Linux Operating Systems will this computer run? So far the supported Operating Systems are versions of Debian, Fedora, and Arch Linux. These OSs can be downloaded and put on the SD card yourself, or if you'd rather, you'll be able to buy SD cards on the website with them already installed and ready to go once the site starts taking orders.

There is no pre-ordering for these boards. The only thing that can be bought off the site right now are little Raspberry Pi stickers to test out their online ordering system. The release date will be here soon. The hope is to have these start full production by the end of this year (2011). For the first two weeks they will only be purchasable if you also pay the price twice, for charity, after those two weeks are up, they will be the final price of $35 and $25.

Once these start being geared more toward the students, as is the plan, we will start to see booklets and tutorals put out from Raspberry Pi for these systems. As it already is, there are youtube videos given by some people that already have an early version of these from testing versions available to watch on youtube.