Raspberry Pi - A $35 credit card sized computer
Recently, a good friend of ours asked us to look into a computer that was the size of a credit card and costs around $35. As expected, we took it with a pinch of salt.
So what is it?
It's basically a basic Linux PC that is not only designed to help encourage children to code but also is powerful enough to handle everyday tasks such as spreadsheets and word processing.
It is a well known fact that IT education today means IT literacy, not computer science - that is, teaching children how to use applications rather than how to make them.
According to The Royal Society, "we appear to have succeeded in making many people comfortable with using the technology that we find around us, but this seems to have been at the expense of failing to provide a deeper understanding of the rigorous academic subject of computer science." The Pi hopes to help promote that understanding.
The Raspberry Pi processor is a 700MHz Broadcomm system on a chip with a Videocore 4 GPU. That provides OpenGL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG and 1080p HD video. There's 256MB of on-board RAM and sockets for HDMI, USB 2.0, RCA video, USB 2.0 and 3.5mm audio jacks, and power comes via a MicroUSB connector. The OS is Linux (Fedora) and it supports programming languages including Python, BBC Basic, C and Perl.And the best part is it price of $35 for model B.
But like any potential 'NEXT BIG THING', the Pi too has its share of bad luck.The $35 credit card-sized computer was built with the wrong jack, Raspberry Pi said in a Thursday.For existing models, Raspberry Pi claimed it's a "very minor problem to fix." It must desolder the wrong jack and attach the correct one. The production plant is almost done fixing the first round of computers, it said.
But given it's noble intention of helping the children of the world progress, we wish it the best and hope it does what many giants in the past have failed to do..
So what is it?
It's basically a basic Linux PC that is not only designed to help encourage children to code but also is powerful enough to handle everyday tasks such as spreadsheets and word processing.
It is a well known fact that IT education today means IT literacy, not computer science - that is, teaching children how to use applications rather than how to make them.
According to The Royal Society, "we appear to have succeeded in making many people comfortable with using the technology that we find around us, but this seems to have been at the expense of failing to provide a deeper understanding of the rigorous academic subject of computer science." The Pi hopes to help promote that understanding.
The Raspberry Pi processor is a 700MHz Broadcomm system on a chip with a Videocore 4 GPU. That provides OpenGL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG and 1080p HD video. There's 256MB of on-board RAM and sockets for HDMI, USB 2.0, RCA video, USB 2.0 and 3.5mm audio jacks, and power comes via a MicroUSB connector. The OS is Linux (Fedora) and it supports programming languages including Python, BBC Basic, C and Perl.And the best part is it price of $35 for model B.
But like any potential 'NEXT BIG THING', the Pi too has its share of bad luck.The $35 credit card-sized computer was built with the wrong jack, Raspberry Pi said in a Thursday.For existing models, Raspberry Pi claimed it's a "very minor problem to fix." It must desolder the wrong jack and attach the correct one. The production plant is almost done fixing the first round of computers, it said.
But given it's noble intention of helping the children of the world progress, we wish it the best and hope it does what many giants in the past have failed to do..
