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University of Cambridge Offers Free Online Raspberry Pi Course
Barence writes "The University of Cambridge has released a free 12-step online course on building a basic operating system for the Raspberry Pi. The course, Baking Pi — Operating Systems Development, was compiled by student Alex Chadwick during a summer interning in the school's computer lab, and has been put online to help this year's new recruits start work with the device. The university has already purchased a Raspberry Pi for every new Computer Science student starting in 2012."
.... *(mouse, keyboard and large HDMI LCD panel for your room not included)
Wish I had got a free computer when I went to university there. They should buy all their ex-compsci-students one as well, IMO.
Free PC + £100 of mouse/keyboard/SD/monitor is a lot cheaper than a full PC. However I suspect that most development will be done on a main PC cross-compiling to the device.
And this hardware will provide a baseline computing platform to teach upon.
When will it start this course?
And actually get it delivered to you? I ordered mine back in mid June, and I'm STILL waiting for it.
Latest ETA was late September.
I think it's a miniature course in elements of systems programming rather than a tutorial on writing an operating system in the modern sense.
It worries me that something as simple as a Raspberry Pi is offered to all Cambridge undergrads, though. This is supposed to be the best university in the country - why are there people being admitted to its courses who aren't already playing with stuff like this in their spare time as kids?
will buy you a carp low end dell for FREE** real cost is lumped into the all the fees we have and most people don't even want it as they have better ones.
Finally, a 12 step program you might actually complete successfully.
This explains why I can't seem to get one. I have been waiting for my pi for months, and I was on the waiting list for months before that. I just got an email the other day that said they couldn't produce enough of the devices and my order would be delayed *again*. I bet I won't see one until 2013.
I think the course is great. After the initial excitement of getting my Pi up and running (to the point of doing a Google search) this little board has been sitting around on my desk for a few weeks gathering dust. Finding out that the little LED labelled "OK" on the Pi's PCB is hooked up to the GPIO and can be turned on/off with a few lines of assembly language is exciting news! Browsing through the pages of this online course... 10/10 to the author for an ace job at tutorial writing. You end up compiling to a new kernel.img that you copy over to the SD card. Plug it in, turn it on and it boots into your assembly. Somehow not as super-human feeling as directly controlling a 286 with Turbo Assembler back in the teenage years but certainly the most excited I've been in a long time. My only prayer is that those pimply faced youths appreciate just how awesome it is to be controlling a piece of sand to make some gallium arsenide pump out bursts of photons are regular intervals. The tutorial goes as far as describing and working with the message API to control the display driver. Gives a great overview of how the system works at a low level. Fantastic.
If only mate, there's probably more of us than they've made yet. Wouldn't mind one though...
I've ordered 3 from Farnell and had them delivered within 3 days of placing the order.
If you're waiting for an RS order, it can't hurt to buy from Farnell and cancel your RS order if it arrives first. If your RS order beats the farnell one, you have the right to return it within 7 days.
will buy you a carp low end dell for FREE** real cost is lumped into the all the fees we have and most people don't even want it as they have better ones.
Hopefully your chosen university also has remedial English classes.
Folk keep harping on the price of the extra stuff like a laptop, keyboard, mouse, display.
For "Operating Systems Development" the RasPI is ideal. You cannot do OS development
on your own laptop. Some can be done under qemu but nothing is equal to real hardware.
OS development is like working on cars. You need a second car to go get parts
if you are doing anything other than a trivial repair. Microsoft and Apple do not give
out the keys to their walled garden so they exclude themselves. There are so many
other hardware platforms that no class could address all the N! permutations of devices
and stuff. Replace the head gasket on your car tonight if you want a lesson in auto mechanics that
makes this point.
The RasPI is small, inexpensive and ideal for education.
It can be connected to a laptop via an ethernet link and powered from that
same laptop or a wall wart. Reload the SD card as needed when something
is broken.
Homework... pickup and then hand in an SD memory card... All students are pointed to
the same base code image....
REMEMBER: OS design... like working on cars. You need a second car to go get parts
if you are doing anything other than a trivial repair.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.