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Saturday 8 September 2012
Review: Raspberry Pi

You can get a lot for $35 these days. It bought me what looks like a credit card-sized James Bond gadget prototype, but is actually a fully functional computer. It has an ARM processor like those in many cell phones, 256 megabytes of RAM, a wired network connection, two USB ports, an HDMI video connection, and a graphics coprocessor able to decode a Blu-ray DVD. It’s powered by a cell-phone charger and is intended to revolutionize technology education by helping to create a new generation of hackers and makers (see “An Ultracheap Computer”).

You’ll need to scavenge around your house for some extra parts to do more than just marvel at the Raspberry Pi’s compact design. Find an old USB keyboard, a mouse, and a screen (most old TVs or computer monitors should be suitable) and plug them into the computer’s sockets. Grab a four-gigabyte SD card and flash it with the free Linux-based operating system on the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s website. Put the SD card into the slot, apply power, and you’ve got a 700 megahertz Unix workstation with hardware accelerated 3-D graphics—something that would have been state-of-the-art in 2001 and set you back several thousand dollars.

22 notes

  1. byct reblogged this from pod313 and added:
    my friend has one.
  2. pod313 reblogged this from azspot
  3. styrofoambirds reblogged this from youmustbenedstarksbastard
  4. notational reblogged this from azspot
  5. woody reblogged this from azspot
  6. itsnotaconspiracy reblogged this from azspot
  7. carlbgood reblogged this from azspot and added:
    In fall 1999 I purchased a 500mhz 256mb ram, dell with I think 6gb harddrive—set me (my parents) back $1400. It was the...
  8. youmustbenedstarksbastard reblogged this from azspot and added:
    We have one of these!
  9. mymindblown reblogged this from azspot
  10. 8bitian reblogged this from azspot and added:
    I really want to grab one of these and mess around with it.
  11. azspot posted this

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