Slashdot Mirror


Details About Raspberry Pi Foundation's $25 PC

First time accepted submitter salcan writes "There is growing interest surrounding the Raspberry Pi Foundation and their promise of a PC that will cost just $25. We've seen how the OLPC has struggled to deliver a $100 laptop for developing countries, and yet Raspberry Pi is confident in delivering the $25 PC by November this year. Eben Upton, director of the foundation, recently gave a talk at Bletchley Park regarding Educating Programmers, which focused on the thinking behind the $25 PC."

8 of 349 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Less than a "PC" by wolfie123 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, when i unplug my peripherals from my computer case, it ceases to be a PC? Whoa. Radical, dude.

    --
    I am convinced that I can always be convinced otherwise.
  2. Re:Cost of a textbook? by Tompko · · Score: 5, Informative

    It has a HDMI port

    It also has an analogue TV out.

    We don't even know how much RAM will it have

    The $25 version will have 128Mb, and there's a $35 with 256Mb.

    whether it will run Linux

    It will run Linux, originally the hope was to run Ubuntu but with their restricted memory footprint they're having to go with a version of Debian instead. Amazing what you can learn when you watch the full video and actually listen to it.

  3. Re:The new Arduino by slim · · Score: 4, Informative

    at least for high power mains projects

    "The device should run well off 4xAA cells"

    Although I agree Arduino probably will use less power. Different design goals.

  4. Unfair comparison by JBHarris · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Raspberry Pi hardware doesn't do the same things as the OLPC does. The Raspberry doesn't include an form of input or output as part of the reference hardware. So, at that point we are basically selling a computing core, ram, and some storage for $25. If the students need monitors, mice & keyboards at each location, they may as well just carry around a USB thumb stick with a custom LiveOS and put the Pi or other processing core at the work station. That sounds a LOT like my son's middle school.

  5. Re:Cost of a textbook? by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Informative

    Shouldn't that info be on the WEBSITE?

    It is.
    Don't you check your "facts" before posting them online?

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  6. Missing the point... by YenRug · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From what I can read, so far, nearly all of the commenters are missing the point. This is not intended as a "cheap PC" option in the same way that OLPC was meant to get laptops into the hands of third-world children; if you read up on it, it's intention is for use as a "standard platform" for learning programming techniques in a limited environment. People like David Braben grew up learning to write extremely efficient code because they had such limited memory to work with, such as the Sinclair ZX80/ZX81 which only had 16KB (NOT a typo, that's KB, not MB), the Acorn/BBC B with 32KB and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum with 48KB. There is a general feeling that current students are getting "sloppy" and presume they're always going to have GB's of memory to stretch out in, so they've created PI to encourage creative thinking without placing too much demand on the wallets of students.

  7. Re:The new Arduino by jc79 · · Score: 4, Informative

    PS: "analogue"? Really? Colour me modernist, but that's a rather archaic spelling even for an Englishman.

    Not an archaic spelling. A correct spelling.

  8. Re:Cost of a textbook? by Abstrackt · · Score: 4, Funny

    I joined when I was about 17 out of curiosity; the people I met were mostly lacking any social skills, kind of awkward to be around and lacking any sense of humour.

    Sounds very much like slashdot then.

    Slashdot has a sense of humor, just look at how Unicode is handled!

    --
    They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett