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Why the Raspberry Pi Won't Ship In Kit Form

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-are-too-clumsy dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A post at the Raspberry Pi blog shows an image containing the device's SoC and memory chip to help explain why the tiny PC won't ship in kit form. Clearly, the chips are so small, and the solder blobs required so tiny, that most people would mess up doing it by hand. Add to that the fact one chip has to sit on top of the other, and if you're a millimeter out, your chips are fried." The post also addresses the use of closed source libraries for graphics acceleration.

8 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Just an idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    How about we stop posting a Raspberry Pi story every goddamn blog post and save the talk for oh... I don't know... when the god damn thing actually ships?

    I've been throwing my money at the screen for months and NOTHING'S HAPPENING!!!

    1. Re:Just an idea... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, we tried that, but we ran out of Apple and Google stories to run during the interim.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    2. Re:Just an idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      haven't seen a bitcoin story in a while

  2. "Most people" would mess this up? by Lashat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Should read EVERYONE without the nimble fingers of a child, the steady hand of a special forces sniper, and the sharpest soldering iron this side of the sun.

    --
    For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
  3. Fix this, MacGyver! by Chemisor · · Score: 4, Funny

    And to think that only 30 years ago a resourceful fellow could fix a circuit board with a silver dollar, pliers, and a car battery. With today's electronics, MacGyver would be dead.

  4. Re:Assumptions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    They might as well include one of these in the deal too, for people who like to do pointless and unnecessary things:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterme/3428170/

  5. Re:Worthless as a media streaming device by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    HTPCs mess with the signal in all kinds of ways (YUV->RGB conversion is forced, even if you select YUV, it converts to RGB then converts back)

    RGB to YUV is lossless in both directions.

    But you lose the overtones.

  6. Re:DIY kit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's a kit kit. Brilliant!