There's a lot of excitement right now in the UK tech community about a new computer called the
Raspberry Pi. It's a bare board computer with an ARM processor that runs Gnu/Linux that is expected to sell for $25. It's aimed principally at the education market with the intention of getting schools to teach students how to program and build things with computers instead of just learning Word and Excel as they do now.
The Raspberry Pi will soon be available for anyone to buy. When they are, I'm tempted to get one. My recently acquired
Gadget Gangster has helped me recapture some of the magic and excitement I felt when I first started dabbling in home computers back in the '80s with things like the Nascom 1, ZX81 and Sinclair Spectrum. I think the Raspberry Pi would do the same.
PCs and Windows are great tools, but they have turned computers into appliances and made computing boring. Microcontrollers are like QRP computers - more of a challenge to use but when you succeed you feel a real thrill at having accomplished something.
I think there has never been a better time than now to have an interest in electronics. I hope the Raspberry Pi is a huge success. Perhaps it will result in more of our young people becoming engineers instead of wanting to be lawyers or salespeople.
I'm going to get one for sure. I am dying to see if it can run my 1-Wire sensors so I can set up my weather station again. I could use a regular old PC, but the power consumption is holding me back. The Raspberry Pi could just be the trick to put up a small energy efficient server.
ReplyDeleteI heard about these a little while back and have got on their mailing list too. Originally they were asking for applications for them and I expect they have had hundreds of offers.
ReplyDeleteI understand that they will be auctioning off the first 10 or so on eBay but I'll hang fire as there's sure to be a bidding war for those.
I like the Arduino controllers as they've tought me quite a bit so far. I am of course a bit of thicko with these things so its slow going.
There are currently four auctions on eBay for #1, #2, #3, and #4 prototypes of the Raspberry PI. #1 is currently at more than $5000, #2 at more than $2000 and so on.
ReplyDeleteThese undoubtedly are being bid on by collectors thinking (hoping) to get a hold of piece of history that will only appreciate.
I will patiently wait for the production versions to be easily available.
cheers, Graham ve3gtc
I'd like to connect a software defined radio such as the softrock RxTx or the Funcube dongle - the combination of low power consumption, USB connectivity, Linux and a moderate amount of computing power could work wonders.
ReplyDeleteI did also consider it as a viable option for USB over Ethernet for a remote station - I'm currently using an Intel Atom running XP to remote my Kenwood TS-590.
73 de Andy G0VRM
Hello Juian! I will order at least one of these for APRS projects. As it's not able to run Wine I hope someone comes up with a Linux based QRU service.
ReplyDelete73 to Olga and yourself!
Mads, la1tpa
I'm going to get one, too.....or two
ReplyDelete73 fm jose, EA4DQX
Some specs>
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi
73,
Ron