On 1 Mar 2012, at 13:44, coggs wrote:
To me, the RasPI just the latest embedded Linux board, but this time
at an incredible price. It is running the latest Arm Cortex SOC with
the SDRAM sandwiched in the same package, but even that isn't unique.
It does have HDMI out which is fairly distinctive, but there are
others (http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/
cotton_candy.jpg)
The price US$35 really is difficult to believe, but possible since
Broadcomm is probably giving away the chip at near cost for marketing
purposes. The fact that they'll be building them in China in 20k unit
batches doesn't hurt either. (The RasPI organizer's day job is working
for Broadcomm). The fact that RasPI is organized as an not-for-profit
educational trust also has something to do with the incredible low
cost.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK charity.
A PDF here explains the team and its aims:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rdm34/raspi-talk.pdf
The Foundation is adamant that the cost per unit will not increase.
In fact they have already doubled the memory of the A board before
any have been made, for the same cost. The main stream of Pis will
include a free clear case, once component supplies and board layout
are standardised.
The computer knowledge taught at UK schools has generally been poor,
often confined to an overview of Microsoft Office. The ability of the
teachers has been poor. So the school teaching packs for the
Raspberry Pi will be aimed at teaching the teachers as much as
teaching the kids. It will be very visual, with the code and the
resulting effects graphic and immediate. Government lobbying has been
going on at quite a high level and it is no accident that reforms in
IT teaching in UK schools have been announced slightly in advance of
the Pi's release.
The Pi is also distinctive for us nixie-ites who like to wire things
up, because it has brought out 12 general I/O pins to a standard 0.1"
header. Gert, who also works at Broadcom, has already produced the
Gertboard, which is a breakout board that will allow programmable
access to these pins for control purposes. This will become available
shortly.
http://youtu.be/-UK4mKBpTBE
The model B I ordered yesterday from Farnell cost £24.55 and with UK
VAT tax it came to £29.46. Delivery if you have to pay it will be
extra. I am still trying to figure out why RS says it is £21.60 (no
doubt +VAT). You'd think they would standardise the price between the
two suppliers.
Broadcom arm peripheral data sheet is here:
http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1521578.pdf
John S
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