Just a short note about the forthcoming Raspberry Pi… which is not (unfortunately for some) a new tasty fruit and pastry-based confection, but a low-cost computer. And when I say low-cost, I mean it. The basic version (without networking) is just £16, and the version with ethernet is a whole whopping six quid more. The noble aim is to inspire a new generation of computer genuises.
As the folks at the UK-based Raspberry Pi Foundation (supported by the University of Cambridge) explain, the device is “a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming.”
For the geeks, the design includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, 128 or 256 megabytes (MiB) of memory, intended to run Linux or RISC OS. The design does not include a built-in hard disk or solid-state drive, instead relying on an SD card for long-term storage.
It is scheduled for launch in January 2012 – and I intend to get my hands on one (at that price, how could I not?), so watch this space for a review.
For more information, visit www.raspberrypi.org.
