Raspberry Pi - Almost here

[Dos_Box]

The Register has a good article on the £22 ($35) micro miracle which is due to ship in December. Maybe this can begin to help plug the coding gap in schools?

Psst, kid... Wanna learn how to hack? ? The Register

rpi_alphaboard_thumb.jpg

The RaspberryPi Model A and Model B (a reference to the BBC Micro) are expected to go on sale in December priced $25 and $35 (16 and 22 quid respectively). The Model A will have 128M of RAM and no Ethernet, whereas the Model B will be produced in larger numbers and have 256M of RAM plus 10/100MBit networking.
Although bare boards will be made available first, Upton said he expects the foundation to offer a cased version with electronic documentation next year for the same price. Meanwhile, the Pi has some rivals: the closest being Texas Instruments and Digi-Key's BeagleBone, which is a small 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8-powered computer for about 60 quid. Although the Pi gang hopes to make all its schematics and associated low-level documentation available for all, the Beagleboard project actively publishes its engineering materials under an open-source licence.
"In five years' time, we'll be looking back on the era of $300 Intel system units in bemusement," Upton concluded.

[edutech4schools]

I watched this on tv a few months back. very interesting.

[AlexB]

Yup, I've been waiting on these. I doubt they'll take off at my school, but you can be damn sure I'll pick up a couple....

[X-13]

If I can get a small screen, would it be possible to wire it to the board without the need for drivers?

Something like an iPhone screen, but cheaper.

I'm starting to have an idea.

[dhicks]

If I can get a small screen, would it be possible to wire it to the board without the need for drivers?

Yes - the best place to check is the Raspberry Pi forums, where this topic has been discussed several times. The Raspberry Pi itself has an interface suitible for attaching an LCD screen, although I can't remember the exact details, and I figure Mimo USB controlled (and powered) screens should work, although you'd need drivers for those.

[wesleyw]

With ThinStation installed a very cheap ThinClient? Theres bound to be a port of it for this at some point.


Wes

[X-13]

Yes - the best place to check is the Raspberry Pi forums, where this topic has been discussed several times. The Raspberry Pi itself has an interface suitible for attaching an LCD screen, although I can't remember the exact details, and I figure Mimo USB controlled (and powered) screens should work, although you'd need drivers for those.

Useful. But not what I was thinking.

I have bigger ideas for it.

E-paper + Laser/optical[?] edged retractable touchscreen. On-screen keyboard.

Crack open either an old phone to get rf antenna/3g connector, install skype.

Whack in a rechargeable battery.

I've now got the most advanced phone in the world.

I'm thinking of it, when closed, looking like a black box. Which opens to have a handle, of sorts, either side and the screen in the middle.



Like I said, big ideas. [Read: It's cool... but it probably wont work.]

With ThinStation installed a very cheap ThinClient? Theres bound to be a port of it for this at some point.


Wes

This is what i was thinking when I first saw it. The one with the ethernet port is a thin client without the casing.

[SHimmer45]

i like this alot, shame it doesnt have an SATA port on it, be ideal for homebrewing NAS enclosures without all the hideous bloat which is seeping into the market imo.

[teejay]

It's finally made it to manufacturing, unfortunately it's not being made in the UK as planned but in the Far East due to stupid import duty on components, ah well - We’ve started manufacture! | Raspberry Pi

[SHimmer45]

bloody tax getting in the way of something being made in the UK.... no wonder we dont make much anymore
good to see it going into production

[teejay]

Think they're going to have to up their production run pretty sharpish after Gove's announcement today!

[mjs_mjs]

Think they're going to have to up their production run pretty sharpish after Gove's announcement today!

What have they said now?

does anyone know if we can pre-order the PI?

[plexer]

Nope can only buy when they get stock.

Ben

[Arthur]

They aren't doing pre-orders. I think the first batch will probably be available to buy sometime in February or March.

This means that the first units from the first batch will be rolling off the line at the end of January. This first batch will consist only of Model Bs, although you will be able to buy Model As later on. Details about whether we’ll wait for all 10k to come off the line before starting sales, and about what date we’ll be starting on, will come later; so that gives you something else for you to shift around nervously on your chairs about for at least another week or so. (Source)

[teejay]

What have they said now?

Gove has scrapped the ICT curricullum from September and replaced it with Computer Science, I can see demand from schools for the RPi going through the roof as it's a cheap and safe way for students to really get stuck into some programming.