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10k Raspberry Pi Units Available In December
An anonymous reader writes "A tweet appeared from Raspberry Pi stating the launch of the $25 PC wasn't happening in November as expected. So I decided to investigate further and contacted Raspberry Pi to see what was going on. Eben Upton was kind enough to email me back and give us some good and bad news. The bad news is: we aren't getting the $25 PC this month as expected. But that's where the bad news ends, as it is still arriving in 2011 for some people. Eben confirmed that an order has been placed for 10,000 units, but they won't arrive until the end of November. That means we will see Raspberry Pi go up for sale in December, but it won't be a typical 'get as many out the door as you can' launch. Those first 10k are earmarked for programmers as software is desperately required before a full consumer launch." Update: Apparently some of the details about the production of units and who can get one from the first batch have changed. Raspberry Pi has updated their front page with the latest information.
No details have been made available yet as to how those first 10k units will be allocated
"In the space below, write a scheme program that outputs your shipping address"
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Please read from the horse's mouth:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
Quote:
An article in today's www.geek.com suggested a couple of things -- first, that we're already producing units, and secondly, that we're limiting sales to programmers only at first. Both of these appear to be the result of some horrible miscommunication (blame Eben; he's very tired).
Have you ever even been to slashdot before? http://tech.slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=raspberry+pi
It is a product that has been talked about quite a bit here on slashdot, but really you should just google it and find out for yourself what it is.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
A cheap board with an ARM11 and 128MB of RAM for $25. Cute, cheap, but slow.
Nothing for you to be concerned about at all - it's going to be hard enough time getting hold of one of these for Christmas already I think.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Here is the quick and dirty from their website:
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity (Registration Number 1129409) which exists to promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing.
We plan to develop, manufacture and distribute an ultra-low-cost computer, for use in teaching computer programming to children. We expect this computer to have many other applications both in the developed and the developing world.
Our first product is about the size of a credit card, and is designed to plug into a TV or be combined with a touch screen for a low cost tablet. The expected price is $25 for a fully-configured system.
Provisional specification
700MHz ARM11
128MB or 256MB of SDRAM
OpenGL ES 2.0
1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
Composite and HDMI video output
USB 2.0
SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
General-purpose I/O
Optional integrated 2-port USB hub and 10/100 Ethernet controller
Open software (Ubuntu, Iceweasel, KOffice, Python)
But low-power and ideal for server use. Currently I have a old laptop functioning just as an MPD server, it's overkill for such needs. I'd love to replace it with a Raspberry Pi.
There's an informative Wikipedia article about it too.
...and the delays begin. The vaporware process continues...
even with multiple arduinos, there's only so much you can do.
I'm hoping this pi thing will be cheap and yet easy enough to access low level things and 'be a controller' too. carrying linux around is pretty heavy (for a controller) and a LOT of software to test, validate and worry about. arduinos have setup() and loop() and that is your world. its such a simple and secure world. add linux to controllers and all hell can break loose if you are not careful.
when the pi is buyable, I'll get one or two. at the very least, I need a webserver and ip-stack (and firewall) front-end to my real embedded systems. perhaps I'll serial couple them and keep things insulated that way until I'm sure the pi and its ip networking path is secure enough to be given direct control over embedded controlled physical things. but as a front-end doing web stuff I'm sure its going to be more than powerful enough.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Considering that the Arduino Uno sells for 30$USD, I'm still impressed by the specifications of the Raspberry Pi.
Is it powerful enough to run MAME, at least older versions?
Some of it is open, some of it is not. Broadcom has certain IP entanglements that prevent them from open sourcing everything. The graphics drivers are almost certainly going to be closed source, but I believe Broadcom has a bounty out for creating an open-source TCP/IP stack that performs as well as their current closed source implementation. Pray tell, though, what hardware is there currently that's super-low-power, low cost and does 1080p30 h.264 and is all open source drivers?
I'd encourage people to visit www.raspberrypi.org to read the clarification we've posted. Summary
- we're in the process of accumulating parts kits for the first 10k unit production run
- we'll be doing a phased launch, to avoid the risk of kicking out 10k units and having them come straight back with a trivial early-life bug
- the majority of devices will be available on a first-come first-served basis, with a small number held back for continuity of supply to key partners
Eben Upton
Raspberry Pi Foundation
Jeez. Read the summary. Obviously it's a company that's going to launch 25 dollars. Presumably into space.
As to why you should care; well if you're a nerd you just will. 'Cause, like, this is slashdot and stuff.
This product is no more suitable for microcontroller applications than an eee-pc.
Arduino's appeal is that of low level electronic access. It can take voltage readings or output PWM and digital voltage signals. More advanced projects use serial or I2C communication with peripherals but it is all really low level access. As they say, Arduino is for physical computing.
Raspberry Pi is meant to be an inexpensive computer.... an application platform where the primary input and output are a keyboard and a monitor.
They may both be small, green, and electronic, but they are no more competitors than donuts are to potato (starchy brown food?).
How the fuck was it easier to write a comment than to fucking Google it? And how is there always some asshat who does this every single story?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
What is Google and why should I use it?
If your project needs more I/O pins than the Raspberry PI makes available and does not require the increased memory, storage and CPU available in the Raspberry PI then an Arduino might be better suited for you.
Also Arduino boards can be programmed in pure ANSI C. All the Arduino development library does is provide some functions, headers and libraries to make embedded programming more portable across several Arduino models of hardware. You can also write in pure C++ as well there's just not a STL library ported to the Arduino yet AFAIK.
Massive agreement with this. We're *big* Arduino fans (and I personally am a big Atmel AVR fan). The few bright spots in computing education right now are around exactly this sort of cheap and cheerful hardware platform. We wouldn't want to do anything to undermine them.
Eben
Raspberry Pi Foundation
Power consumption might show some major differences. The ARM chips sip power compared to x86 brethren, but the little Atmel chips sip even less. Plus, Arduinos can be simplified down to the chip itself, if you're prototyping and building custom devices... here's the best explanation of how simple you can go: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-RRRRRRRRRRBA-or-What-They-Dont-Teach-You-in-/
I don't think the Pi will be that cheap ($3), that low power-consumption, or that easily integrated into truly tiny custom devices.
Thanks a lot, Mr. Coward. I just laughed coffee all over my keyboard at work, and now I have to explain to my boss how that happened, and why I need a new keyboard! (Seriously, well played, sir. Well played, indeed!)
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Slashdot effect is in order.
Well, they're talking like they're going to double the price and take half as a "donation" now. So it'll be a $70 device (assuming you want the good one), until they decide to sell them the way they said they would.
Just a heads-up to anyone that got too excited about this.
No, but it gets you the Atmel ATmega328 that is the core of the 30$ Arduino platform. And if you can use the internal oscillator, all you need for external parts is a tiny capacitor on the power pins.
IMHO, yes, and you gave the use case yourself: "Arduinos are programmed in a scaled-down version of C. C is fine for simple things, but gets more difficult when dealing with complex algorithms." As I've said elsewhere, I've already got two Arduino Unos, but I'd still like a Raspberry Pi for a couple of more complex projects that would be difficult to implement on the Arduino. OTOH, a Raspberry Pi would be overkill for most of the things I've already done with an Arduino. Actually, I'm not even sure how you would connect a Raspberry Pi to something like an IR sensor, a BMP085 temperature/air pressure sensor, or a string of LEDs. Maybe I missed it, but are there even raw CMOS or TTL level outputs on the Raspberry Pi without having to break out USB or video outputs?
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
My fear is with closed drivers this will very quickly not really be able to do too much with the HDMI or the fancy GPU unless you run an old kernel and X. It will all be unaccelerated and drop behind the graphics stack development the moment Broadcom can't be bothered keeping up with Linux graphics development and move on to the next shiny. As it's closed, the community can't improve or continue development when Broadcom ceases to care. So it could be quite a short lined $25.....
Also the GPU boot thing scares me a bit. Tivoization and DRM come to mind as possible reasons for this kind of protection. That or they really really don't want the community to be able to write their own drivers. Not sure of a "nice" reason for it.
Probably still buy one in hope though.
Those are good citations of other differences, but all areas in which the Pi is "better." I was addressing this question:
Like you say, apples and oranges, because the Arduino still fits some other requirements that the Pi can't... the Pi is not a superset of features of the Arduino.
10K sets of parts are ordered. This has nothing to do with availability of usable systems. See for yourself what Eben says on the web site: http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/302
Just send it through the dishwasher: http://www.howtogeek.com/65915/how-to-clean-your-filthy-keyboard-in-the-dishwasher-without-ruining-it/
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
Good question. We know the Beagleboard went through quite a long revision period before it got completely stable, though we've paid a bit more attention to things like ground plane configuration up front so hopefully we should converge a bit faster. Eyeballing it, probably a few layout tweaks in each production batch for the first six months.
C is lovely for complex work. Have no idea where such a claim would come from. Perhaps from someone who isn't very good a programming in C.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Could you explain a couple of things? Why do you think it's garbage? Why do you think its vapourware? Are are you thinking of something else completely?
What the frack is Raspberry Pi and why should I care?
It's another slashdot scam, like bitcoins.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Um, $25*2 = $50
Anyway, it won't be $25, it'll be £15 (so you'd better hope the pound tanks before December), and for the first batch they might make it mandatory to donate the cost of a unit to buy one (ie give one get one). This probably won't be a requirement for subsequent batches.
4 days later...
Simply put, BroadCom's hardware is pretty much closed. Everything that the Raspberri Pi foundation creates or contributes is open. So you'll end up with a lot of openness on a fairly closed device (it's mostly, or only, the driver part that will be closed, from what I read on their site).
This does showcase a difference between the RasPi foundation and Broadcom's management. Me, I support Eben & Co.'s vision more. But I understand perfectly well why they'd go with such a locked down piece of hardware, and for me personally, it doesn't really matter.
I am not devoid of humor.