The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into a TV and a keyboard. It’s a miniature ARM-based PC which can be used for many of the things that a desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays High-Definition video.
Raspberry Pi is an ultra-cheap Linux-based computer aimed primarily at schools around the world looking for cost effective ways to bring computer programming into the classroom. When it went on sale on Wednesday via the websites of its two distributors — Premier Farnell andRS Components — the level of demand took everyone by surprise.
In fact, soon after going live with the mini computer, both websites crashed. According to a Guardian report this week, both distributors were taking a staggering seven orders a second. No wonder they went down.
Thankfully the sites managed to get back online and within hours had sold the initial production run of about 10,000 units. It’s a fabulous start for the non-profit organization, which is mostly made up of volunteers from academia and the UK tech industry.
“It’s interesting to look at why there’s so much excitement around Raspberry Pi,” Harriet Green, chief executive of Premier Farnell told the Guardian. “I think that a lot of teachers, parents and children are worrying that they’re becoming just consumers – taking something out of a box and plugging it in. There’s a lot of points of concern about children being just consumers rather than creators and innovators.”
Raspberry Pi is available in two versions, Model A for $25, and Model B for $35. Both incorporate a 700MHz ARM11 processor and 256MB of RAM, while Model B also comes with an Ethernet port and two USB ports. To operate Raspberry Pi users will need to hook it up to a monitor, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
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Price £21.60
Source:http://uk.rs-online.com/digitaltrends.com.
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