On 03/08/2011 10:42, Dilwyn Jones wrote:
In the latest issue of gamesTM, page 20, there is an article on
the
Raspberry Pi which is basically a £20 pc.
If it comes with Linux, one of the Linux QL emulators (uQLx, QLay
for Linux) with it... bingo, a £20 QL.
If it is at the heart of it a PC, it might not be too long before
somebody finds a way to put Windows on it, even though that would
mean Windows would be on an unsupported platform and Windows would
cost more than the "PC" it ran on!
Alternatively, if the Linux on it was capable of supporting WINE or
some such "Windows" environment, and the processor is up to it, it
might open up possibilities for QemuLator, QPC2 and QL2K for
example.
In this case, just think, a £20 system could emulate all our
favourite 1980s home computers!
Dilwyn Jones
I think from the later info this is a $20 computer £15 to us.
There is also some info that WINE isn't an emulator but DOSBOX might
be useable.
I believe someone from the QL community has already had contact with
them about getting SBASIC or similar on. Portable Apps is a way of
running prograns without installing on the host machine and slowing
the machine down with installed programmes used infrequently.
Bryan H
Yes, that someone (and it wasn't me) got a reply indicating that some
form of scripting language "such as BBC BASIC or SuperBASIC" could be
supplied if they chose to do so and subject to copyright issues, plus
a comment about the QL being a much underrated machine - so they are
clearly aware of the QL and its merits.
On the other hand, BBC micro seems to be the focus of their comments,
as they talk of a model A with 128MB RAM and model B with 256MB. The
'model B' seems to have a few more bits and pieces like a network
cable socket built in. I guess that since it's a credit card sized
device, it can't go any smaller because fo the size of the USB and
video connectors, for example.
Ther website says availability later in 2011. Alpha version boards
were sent for manufacture on 25th July and they say "the resulting
units will be used to validate the schematic design, and will serve as
our interim software development platform." No mention of
programmability that I could see in a quick scan of the website apart
from the Linux OS, although it does say it has an ARM processor and no
casing design to show as yet. Interestingly they proudly proclaim they
are adequately funded and refuse to take advance orders until they can
ship the device! And will ship worldwide. And hope to do a
buy-one-give-one program (which I suppose is rather like the original
One Laptop Per Child OLPC project to donate a unit to impoverished
children).
If interested, go to www.raspberrypi.org and on the home page
subscribe to their mailing list. And if they contact you remember to
mention the QL of course!!!
There's a picture of a prototype unit running Ubuntu linux 9.04 at
http://www.raspberrypi.org/?page_id=11 the only thing is that as the
RPi is so small, it's dwarfed by the keyboard, usb hub, even the mouse
and all the cables. Hmm, back to the mess of cables hanging off my
1980s QL again :-(
On the forum, they mention portable applications like the
possibilities of hanging one off the back of a camera with a small
wifi dongle, result a wireless camera, for example. Take this a step
further and you could tape a RPi and small usb hub to the back of a
monitor or in a keyboard to reduce messy cabling.
Going on the assumption that it is a $20 / £15 device, what else is
needed to turn it into a usable computer. Off the top of my head I'd
list:
- Monitor
- Mouse (USB?)
- Keyboard (USB?)
- As it only has 128MB or 256MB RAM, some external hard disk or flash
memory (USB)
- wifi or network lead (via USB?)
- printer (via USB?)
- great big massive USB hub for all the things you need to plug in?
- power supply brick to swarf the RaspberryPi (the RPi is said to be
about credit card sized, only needs about 1 watt power!)
- speakers (and/or headsets if used for voice communication)
- camera for video calls.
The possibilities seem endless...
Dilwyn Jones
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