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First Photos and Video of Raspberry Pi Model A
coop0030 writes "The first photos and videos of the Model A production samples are now available. The Raspberry Pi Model A is the newest low-cost computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Compared to the popular Model B, the Model A forgoes the Ethernet Controller, has 256MB of RAM, and has a single USB port. A benefit of the missing Ethernet controller is that power consumption is reduced. This allowed them to reach their goals of a low-cost $25 computer. The release date is for sometime early in 2013."
I'd rather see a $45 Pi with more Ram etc.
It's 2012, 2013 in about 400 hours. ARMv6 and just one USB2.0 port, which isn't even working right. You have got to be kidding.
STFU already about Raspberry Pi, at least until the A model is actually available; everybody knows and nobody cares!
I wanted to get a model B, but the US availability sounds sketchy. May take up to a month? Hmmm...
They should have waited until they could get the cost down with 512MB of RAM. Having used both the 256 and 512 Model B, I found that no amount of tweaking could make the 256 model run a web browser acceptably on a Linux desktop. Modern Linux desktops and browsers have gotten too bloated. LXDE is painfully slow, while KDE and gnome desktops are just downright unable. The 512 model has no such issue.
Judging from their forums, there's a significant number of people who think removing the Ethernet controller/USB hub chip is going to solve or at least substantially reduce the Raspberry Pi's problems with USB. It won't. Unfortunately, but predictably it doesn't look like the Foundation have done anything to correct this misconception. Isochronous transfers which audio interfaces, webcams etc. rely upon won't be affected much, if at all by this change, i.e. they will still be utterly broken. If you get one of these types of devices working at all with your Pi you should consider yourself lucky.
Mk802iii much more powerful and cheaper than the raspberry pi
Interesting. I saw a post just like yours when the Raspberry Pi was first announced. End result was demand was so high it was quite difficult to get. We'll see how it pans out this time.
Can we please get some photos of the Raspberry Pi in its natural environment; sitting unused, covered in dust on some hipster-geek's shelf?
...except it wasn't.
The goal was to stop the erosion in what is perceived to be "computer skills" and interest in computer science as computing in UK schools had become about "Office" and Consumer computing had become "electronics". In fact the cheap part is in response to computers being expensive and arcane. [from http://www.raspberrypi.org/about%5D
I personally am convinced that the costs involved in raising the costs slightly to increase "memory" not anything else is incredibly wise. I have used GNU/Linux on little memory and its not fun...and Android seems to have similar requirements.
Not so much a joke as a reality as is shown right here
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
And why would anyone choose this model over B, with twice the ram, Ethernet, and a second USB port for a measly 10$ savings?
Nice post
Lower power requirements. A lot of embedded device people don't care about the RAM and the ethernet. Who'd like to drag a network cable in their little robot?
And why would anyone choose this model over B, with twice the ram, Ethernet, and a second USB port for a measly 10$ savings?
Not everybody is a spoiled first-world brat whose daddy pays for everything...?
No sig today...
Not everybody is a spoiled first-world brat whose daddy pays for everything...?
Except this is a first world problem that this is designed to solve, Computers becoming to expensive to tinker with and the rise of consoles/dedicated electronics over General Purpose computers. The UK is still the first world.
Quite frankly I'm a little tired of the lie that I can't complain because if I'm not dying of hunger, or my first priory is not getting clean water. The sad fact is I suspect that those never been your problem either.
How about promoting hardware that actually works, has a case, multiple times the memory and in the end costs less than the RPi? The RPi will just sit in the junk pile unused after the initial buzz wears off and reality sets it.
Because they:
1. Don't care much about that difference
and
2. Buy lots of them in which case it's a saving of not 10$ but 30% - and that's a lot.
Real life is overrated.
I love that this got modded -1 Redundant, despite being the first post to criticize timothy's r-pi hardon.
It's like "YMBNH" on steroids; ANY criticism of the editors is redundant, because their suckitude is self-evident.
I bought one and I'm sick and fucking tired of hearing about it. I don't want to hear one more fucking thing until ICS or later is running on it, personally, since that was the news that got me to buy one, and then they never released it, and Liz never adequately explained why.
Raspberry Pi serves as a reminder to the community as to why we still need electronics companies. Apparently, we are not yet capable of producing and delivering a product this complex without doing it badly, even with all the support you could ever hope for from the vendor.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Chill a bit. You could've just expressed your opinion by saying that you're gonna wait for the batch to be secured before we can say much about it, and pass on to read some other article. R-Pi is actually a hot topic in electronics and not just some /. editor's hardon.
To those demanding 512MB, you're a treadmill consumer, not a real programmer.
raspberry pi is supposed to be like the C64/spectrum 8 bit era computers.
the reason these 8bit machines lasted 15+ years, is because programmers eventually learned to break the rules and extend the functionality of the systems far beyond the hardware designers ever conceived. I disagreed with the foundation extending the B model to 512MB as it sets it apart on an upgrade treadmill course, rather than a, develop badass low level code hacker attitude that prevailed on the 8bit demo scene and game industry.
look at late C64 titles like creatures 2, mayhem in monsterland (MIM was 68k long, the programmer found 4K of storage in the C64 ROM chips!)
(the legendary 'lick your finger' cheat code for creatures 2) Triads Red Storm demo, Nuvie FMV player and many other examples of good programmers striping the code back to the silicon, and creating something unexpected, inspirational and mind blowing.
The people here asking for 512MB are the the rich kids whose parents bought them NESes/SNESesand Genesises when they got bored waiting for tapes to load and only returned to computing in the pentium era. While those happy with 256MB are the kids who bought disk drives, compression utility carts and tore it up on C64s/Speccys/Amigas during these years.
Because the ethernet and extra usb port all hang off the same bus, the only real benefit to the model B is the 512mb ram. for xbmc use I'd much rather have a model A so I can plug in a usb wifi adapter and roll with it.
plenty of people working on that port, you're just whining because open source volunteers aren't working to YOUR schedule? hint for you, don't buy hardware for software that isn't released yet.
plenty of people working on that port, you're just whining because open source volunteers aren't working to YOUR schedule?
No, I'm complaining. Whining is a matter of tone.
hint for you, don't buy hardware for software that isn't released yet.
Yes. That's what I said.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
STFU already about Raspberry Pi, at least until the A model is actually available; everybody knows and nobody cares!
Tell me where you work. I'll put a Pi in a little white case, label it "Carbon Monoxide Detctor -- Do Not Remove", equip it with a wifi dongle, load up the PwnPi distro and leave it in your furnace room. Glad to hear you'll be okay with that since it's just a POS.
I thought there were problems with the USB and ethernet on the model B, but I may be mistaken or they may be fixed.
The model B only has one USB out, but they stuck a USB hub chip and USB ethernet chip (they may both be in a single chip) on there to get the two ports and ethernet. If I'll be hooking up my own hub anyway, why not stick my own USB ethernet on there? And with the lower power consumption of the A (because it has no on-board USB hub or ethernet), it will be easier to power it from a spare port on a powered USB hub. I admit the extra RAM on the B is a plus, but not everyone will need it.
Sounds like whining to me!
If you wanted Android then why didn't you get one of those cheap Android devices? I know they cost a bit more than the RPi, but they have a better processor and ICS actually already runs on them.
Here's a tip, never buy hardware for software that is promised to run in the future, only for what it runs today.
Why would anyone choose to use an ATTiny microcontroller over an ATMega with 4 times the ram, 8 times the I/O capability, multi port analogue to digital conversions, interfaces for UART, SPI, TWI etc, for a measly $1.50 savings?
There's much more to a device than cost. So far every application of a Raspberry Pi (despite what the makers showed with their lovely full Linux desktop displays) has NOT been a general purpose computer. Typically I've seen these used as a small embedded platform. In many cases the size of the PCB, weight (e.g. send these up in weather balloons), and power requirements (e.g. run it from solar and a small battery for a remote data monitoring station) may be the overriding factor.
The Raspberry Pi makers look to be trying to take away the market share from small ARM development boards.
The Raspberry Pi is a joke. Try and find one in the US. Sounds like a Ponzi scheme to me.
When Digikey [http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?WT.z_header=search_go&lang=en&keywords=Raspberry%20Pi&x=0&y=0&cur=USD] has them I will believe.
Newark, lets see [http://www.newark.com/jsp/bespoke/bespoke7.jsp?bespokepage=newark/en_US/landing/raspberry-pi/rasp-pi-accessories.jsp&CMP=KNC-G-SUPP-RASPBERRYPI&mckv=sFYz5rH4A|pcrid|18280677381|plid|], not in stock. Wait, they are never in stock.
Really?
More interesting is a $15 Pi with lower HW specs : no audio; no serial (only 1 USB, like Model A); no HDMI (only VGA) or even no video. But also integrated wireless mesh, preferably a snapin daughtercard for either Bluetooth, Zigbee, or even WiFi.
The purpose of these devices is to bootstrap British youth Computer Science education. That education better focus on networked distributed computing, preferably wireless for mobile or just ubiquity. Only one of the machines on the network needs better specs, for human interface. The rest should interface to the many things we have to make smart.
I personally would buy thousands of those low spec devices each year. I'm sure there's a market for hundreds of millions, probably many billion of them. Though most of that market will probably be served by stickon, postage-stamp sized devices powered by ambient (heat, light, flexing) energy and cost under $1, we have to get there steadily. I don't know why Chinese exporters aren't selling Model A and Model B for under $20 already (they're $80+), and a $10- Model C stripped down from there.
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make install -not war
You're right. Please send me your $36.50 ATMega version.
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make install -not war
I see raspberry pies running Debian linux just fine. buy one, plenty of useful software for it, don't need any android to get something useful done
The people here asking for 512MB are the the rich kids whose parents bought them ...
Nah.
They're the people who want to plug in an off-the-shelf distro and get the project done in a couple weeks.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
And why would anyone choose this model over B, with twice the ram, Ethernet, and a second USB port for a measly 10$ savings?
People with a different definition of measly?
EVERYBODY wants more RAM. It's universal among software programmers. As an embedded person myself, let me just say: Give me RAM or give me death.
Why do i get the feeling you've missed the point...
Because you're not paying attention.
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make install -not war