News & Analysis
Raspberry Pi foundation readies $25 PC for launch
Sylvie Barak
12/28/2011 12:13 PM EST
SAN FRANCISCO--British not-for-profit foundation Raspberry Pi has said its credit-card sized $25 PCs will become available for sale next month, once they emerge from final beta testing.
The ultra-low-cost computer, which recently won an award at ARM TechCon in Santa Clara, was conceptualized for use in teaching computer programming, as well as for greater educational use in the developing world.
The small PCB can connect up to a TV or screen via USB 2.0 or HDMI and sports a 700MHz ARM11 processor from Broadcom with 128MB of RAM, a SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot and OpenGL ES 2.0. It runs a Linux-based operating system, and videos demos have shown the diminutive computer able to run compute intensive video games like Quake, as well as 1080p HD video. The device also comes with the option of an additional USB hub and 10/100 Ethernet controller.
Eben Upton, the foundation’s executive director, who also works as an SoC Architect at Broadcom, said in a recent interview with Business Insider that the aim was to build a computer so cheap, it could be handed out to children like textbooks.
“Children are enormously illiterate now, but what they know how to do is use computers. They see them as bits as functional magic and have no idea how they work. That's fine for Facebook and browsing, but if you want a career out of this stuff or create something that's high value, you have to understand how the thing works,” he said.
Upton called the initiative “almost nationalist”, saying the idea had sprung out of concern over Cambridge University’s problem of getting enough qualified students and Britain’s difficulties in being able to produce enough engineering graduates. Lately, however, the foundation has also been seeing interest from people in developing countries like Brazil and Russia, as well as from adult hobbyists looking to build home-made robots and media centers.
“It won't set the world on fire with its desktop performance, but it has a lot of multimedia performance,” said Upton, explaining how the plug and play computer could turn any TV into a workable productivity computer.
As a registered as a not-for-profit, Upton said any money generated from the sale of its Raspberry Pi boards would get funneled back into the business, with hopes that copycat companies would spring up and start developing their own brand of cheap chips.
“We can't make any money out of this, we have no incentive to keep the design of the device secret,” he said adding that he sincerely hoped third parties would be able to manufacture clones.
“We would like nothing more than some company in China to make a million of these. It would be perfect, we would achieve our goal, which is ubiquitous presence of cheap computers,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Raspberry Pi has enough parts for about 10,000 devices, with Upton saying the foundation was in the process of committing a manufacturing run for that number. Once the devices are ready for sale, Upton said they would be offered on a web store.
“I suspect it's going take an hour to sell through it at that point,” he said, noting that he would hold a few hundred in reserve for developers to whom the company had already committed priority devices.
The firm plans on putting out a fresh batch of Pi “slightly more than once a month,” though Upton said it would require some careful planning based on capital requirements.
If the foundation manages to keep its budget balanced, it could well mean a slice of affordable computing pie for many who would otherwise not be able to afford a full priced system.
The ultra-low-cost computer, which recently won an award at ARM TechCon in Santa Clara, was conceptualized for use in teaching computer programming, as well as for greater educational use in the developing world.
The small PCB can connect up to a TV or screen via USB 2.0 or HDMI and sports a 700MHz ARM11 processor from Broadcom with 128MB of RAM, a SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot and OpenGL ES 2.0. It runs a Linux-based operating system, and videos demos have shown the diminutive computer able to run compute intensive video games like Quake, as well as 1080p HD video. The device also comes with the option of an additional USB hub and 10/100 Ethernet controller.
Eben Upton, the foundation’s executive director, who also works as an SoC Architect at Broadcom, said in a recent interview with Business Insider that the aim was to build a computer so cheap, it could be handed out to children like textbooks.
“Children are enormously illiterate now, but what they know how to do is use computers. They see them as bits as functional magic and have no idea how they work. That's fine for Facebook and browsing, but if you want a career out of this stuff or create something that's high value, you have to understand how the thing works,” he said.
Upton called the initiative “almost nationalist”, saying the idea had sprung out of concern over Cambridge University’s problem of getting enough qualified students and Britain’s difficulties in being able to produce enough engineering graduates. Lately, however, the foundation has also been seeing interest from people in developing countries like Brazil and Russia, as well as from adult hobbyists looking to build home-made robots and media centers.
“It won't set the world on fire with its desktop performance, but it has a lot of multimedia performance,” said Upton, explaining how the plug and play computer could turn any TV into a workable productivity computer.
As a registered as a not-for-profit, Upton said any money generated from the sale of its Raspberry Pi boards would get funneled back into the business, with hopes that copycat companies would spring up and start developing their own brand of cheap chips.
“We can't make any money out of this, we have no incentive to keep the design of the device secret,” he said adding that he sincerely hoped third parties would be able to manufacture clones.
“We would like nothing more than some company in China to make a million of these. It would be perfect, we would achieve our goal, which is ubiquitous presence of cheap computers,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Raspberry Pi has enough parts for about 10,000 devices, with Upton saying the foundation was in the process of committing a manufacturing run for that number. Once the devices are ready for sale, Upton said they would be offered on a web store.
“I suspect it's going take an hour to sell through it at that point,” he said, noting that he would hold a few hundred in reserve for developers to whom the company had already committed priority devices.
The firm plans on putting out a fresh batch of Pi “slightly more than once a month,” though Upton said it would require some careful planning based on capital requirements.
If the foundation manages to keep its budget balanced, it could well mean a slice of affordable computing pie for many who would otherwise not be able to afford a full priced system.
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Bob Lacovara
12/28/2011 4:01 PM EST
This sounds like a neat toy. However, it's not clear to me that a person who can only afford a $25 PC has an LCD device and keyboard to connect it to. People in developing countries? Somehow, I suspect they need to get their hands on real horsepower. Is there any reason that Raspberry Pi can't run a server farm so that people could log into a real computer? With real memory, and backup. Make real computing available on shared resources, not on really small machine of more interest to hobbyists and experimenters.
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SylvieBarak
12/28/2011 4:35 PM EST
I get the sense that it's meant more to encourage tinkering and that the idea behind it is: If it's cheap, people will buy one... and then figure out what to do with it. It's meant to stimulate interest, especially in young people. If you buy a $1500 laptop, you're less likely to tinker with it for fear of breaking it... but if you can buy a cheap PCB that plugs into any old screen, why not?
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ibm221
12/28/2011 8:40 PM EST
I doubt this thing will provide positive influence to the kids.
imagine easier access to xxx sites for poor kids.
this project could ruin lots of life as well.
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ibm221
12/28/2011 8:44 PM EST
The chinese answer to cheap pc/internet access for many years is internet cafe.
when you walk inside one you won't see anyone coding, plenty of gaming pirated movies...
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SylvieBarak
12/28/2011 9:40 PM EST
Right.... and the Chinese don't produce any good engineers or manufacture any tech products at all... oh, wait.... they do! hmmm....scratch that!
Sorry for the sarcasm, I couldn't resist!
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ibm221
12/29/2011 7:22 PM EST
the source of most online porn is US or ...
US is the most developed place for xxx industry and educated some good engineer at the same time.
so your logic is nonsense.
you should think china's lack of porn industry limited their engineering capability.
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SylvieBarak
12/30/2011 9:37 AM EST
What the heck does this have to do with porn?! Why do you keep bringing porn into it? Your "logic" is the one that makes no sense here...
You wrote, and I quote: [in Chinese Internet cafes] "when you walk inside one you won't see anyone coding, plenty of gaming pirated movies..."
If the Chinese are just gaming and pirating movies (as YOU claim), and not tinkering or making use of awesome cheap devices like the Raspberry Pi part this article is actually about, then how is it that most tech products are actually made in China? Or that China has such a large portion of engineers? Obviously, they are doing more than just pirating movies and gaming....
My "logic" is not the one that brought porn into this in the first place...
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SylvieBarak
12/28/2011 9:16 PM EST
Really? Are you quite serious? Is that your take on advances in science? "Stop, stop... it might lead the way to viewing online porn?" - That's a bit of a worrying ideology...
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ibm221
12/29/2011 1:34 AM EST
Just let you all don't get too rosy and be aware of the possible negtive impact.
the developing nations need to take protecting measures at the same time when introducing new techs.
ie. china get hooked with internet and banned google for good.
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Dave.Dykstra
12/29/2011 12:34 AM EST
This looks like a fascinating way to get people, especially young people, more interesting in figuring out how computers work and how to make them do more. In general, it looks like a really nifty little device and I hope they are successful. As far as worrying about them being used to view porn, I think I would be more concerned about "normal" PCs being used for that, because people using this are more likely more interested in figuring out what they can use it to accomplish.
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prabhakar_deosthali
12/29/2011 2:31 AM EST
The PCB itself may be cheap but the interfaces (LCD screen and keyboard are expensive). With Govt of India launching a $35 tablet ( AAKASH) which is much like today's state of art tablet PC , where is the market for such tiny devices?
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wilber_xbox
12/31/2011 3:22 AM EST
exactly my thoughts. The size of this device is tiny so AAKASH tablet is more useful.
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yalanand
1/2/2012 6:28 AM EST
I totally agree with you. Aakash has many more features compred to this toy...Just wondering if Aakash is limited to India ? Will it be released outside India as well ?
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eewiz
12/29/2011 8:42 AM EST
is not a bad idea for teaching programming. But they should have built in a few displays/LEDs etc . and bundled few daughter boards/sample projects which could do cool things to get attention of the kids; without which there is no much point in using this vs an emulator.
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ReneCardenas
12/29/2011 12:49 PM EST
I a firm beliver that low cost and ease of prototypeing will advance the art of programming skills in the masses. Like Heatkits dir for me in my early forming years, I comend the non-profit organization and its members for their work and efforts. No easy task ahead for them.
I can't wait to order several copies and do some thinkering of my own.
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goafrit
12/29/2011 2:06 PM EST
This is simply innovative. I have not even heard of it before. Great idea. But let us see if the world will adopt it.
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Wizard12357
12/29/2011 7:00 PM EST
GO GO Raspberry Pi! This is great news! Reminds me of Vic-20 days trying to find a proper UFH port lol. Enabling creativity and imaginations all over the world is a very worthwhile agenda.
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SylvieBarak
12/30/2011 9:44 AM EST
Indeed
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Helicopter
12/29/2011 7:10 PM EST
laptops desktops are common at 199
tablets are available for less than 100( Huawei)
akash is at 35
android smartphone for 30
pi for 25? That's for a PCB without screen?
I don't see a market for pi
smartphones will save the underdeveloped world, not pcs
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SylvieBarak
12/30/2011 9:44 AM EST
Most people have some sort of a TV though, right? And it plugs directly into a TV...
No one is saying that you should buy a $25 PCB and then buy a $500 screen to go with it. The point of it is that it hooks up to screens people probably already own.
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ReneCardenas
12/31/2011 6:57 PM EST
You assume that people enjoy and love tourturing their eye sight with tiny screens.
We must agree, Large CRTs and panels are more plentiful than smart phones.
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Sanjib.Acharya
12/30/2011 1:42 PM EST
The idea is good, but I guess in India "Akash" would be more competitive as it comes with a touch screen and there is no need for a key board and TV.
I would be happy to buy it to do some experimental home automation stuff.
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Bob Lacovara
12/30/2011 1:57 PM EST
SylvieBarak and ibm21 seem to be discussing apples and oranges, but then, I'm not sure. Any technology can be perverted: an astounding amount of good and useful information crosses the internet; an astounding amount of porn does as well. I make a value judgement just by writing such a statement, but few people would equate the value of medical databases with porn access.
Here's a more controversial opinion. Take all of the, uh, darned, computers in grammar and high school, and throw them out of the windows. They are of practically no use whatsoever in teaching kids to read, to write, and to do basic math. Keep the research machines in the libraries; keep the access to educational data bases. But kids don't need computers to read books on; they don't need computers to "help" with math; they don't need to know how to make flashy but content-free presentations using PowerPoint. The compositions that I've seen that students have done using MS Word are no better than with a pencil.
Remember that NASA put men on the moon without personal computers. Many engineers out there today went through college without electronic calculators. PCs, for grammar grade students, and for most high schoolers are just a distraction. And that's at best. ibm21 has reminded us of the darker side of the internet.
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SylvieBarak
12/30/2011 3:55 PM EST
I actually agree with that ;)
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chanj
12/30/2011 3:22 PM EST
The device sounds to me like one step forward to bring ARM into the PC world. Gaming so far has been the main driver to sell more powerful computer and encourage the development of better computer. I wonder whether the $25 computers come with OS and some games to get kids hook up to it.
Regardless, it would be a good educational toy for institutions to educate students about computer.
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daleste
12/30/2011 6:12 PM EST
I think it’s a great idea and a noble cause. I just don't see it doing what they intended. If they offer it on the web as they state, most of the units will be snapped up by hobbyists like us. How do they get into the hands of the people they are trying to help? I do like that they used a fruit name.
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ReneCardenas
12/31/2011 7:04 PM EST
The goal is to instigate high volume from Mfg that wait and see what is next for quick profit.
If get to be manufactured in volume, I can see all kinds of after market follow-ups.
Not just a delivery content gadgets, but other practical around the house apps.
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DrQuine
12/30/2011 6:43 PM EST
The first generation of personal computer gurus grew up with devices that they could modify, disassemble, and really understand. That understanding enabled them to envision and develop new devices. It is wonderful that again a technology is becoming available that makes the hardware and underlying computer technology accessible to a new generation of tinkerers. I look ahead to the biographies of engineers inspired by the access such new devices provided them.
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Robotics Developer
1/2/2012 4:02 PM EST
I have been looking forward to the start of sales for a few months now and it looks like the wait is almost over! I hope that the design will be open sourced so that others can add to and build upon this basic design. The low cost is very attractive, the delays in product release have been hard to accept (but good things come to those who wait), there is a lot of promise for this effort. The real fruit will be from the myriad of applications, 2nd generation additions, and the development of a full blown eco system for the boards. I hope for great success for them!
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bobbytsai
4/26/2012 11:50 PM EDT
i see folks worried about developing interest in engineering and science but i see very few mentors in elementary / middle / high schools. cheap development kits have been around for years. basic-stamp, mcu dev boards, usb dev kits. its not about the cost of the dev boards. it about the mentoring and the time papa/mama bear engineers are willing to spend with baby bear engineers and teach, motivate, redirect, focus and play that will help develop interest and quality engineers. i spend 2-3 hours a week during the school years mentoring kids but don't see that many engineers in classrooms. some of our best mentors are non-engineers that are learning programming while teaching kids.
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