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BBC Reveals Its New Microcomputer Design
The BBC has revealed the final design for its Micro Bit computer, a programmable board the size of a credit card they hope will inspire the same love of technology that the BBC Micro did in 1981. The Micro Bit includes an array of LEDs, buttons, and a motion sensor. It can be powered via USB, or by an addon pack with AA batteries. It's not intended as a competitor to devices like the Raspberry Pi or the Arduino — it is intended to complement them while remaining simple for educational purposes. In October, the BBC will begin distributing the Micro Bit to students in grade 7. They expect to give away about a million of them. Afterward, the device will go on sale, and its specs will be open sourced.
Socialism!
Too bad they couldn't come up with a name which would have been "BBC" for the acronym.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Baba O'Reilly?
c'mon. you knew that.
Subject says it all...
No sig today...
I don't know the reason but this became a lot less interesting as soon as the battery was altered, would have been a useful wearable...
Pity
John Jones
Sure, give them away until people are hooked on them, then charge them through the nose. Where have I seen that before?
TFS says: "It's not intended as a competitor to devices like the Raspberry Pi or the Arduino — it is intended to complement them while remaining simple for educational purposes" so it appears that is NOT in fact what they say they have done.
The real difference between the BBC Micro of 1981 and the BBC Micro Bit of 2015 is 34 years of changes in society and technology.
I was at school when the first BBC Micro appeared. My school built a special computer laboratory to accommodate two of these mystical devices! (they forgot to add burglar alarms and decent locks so it all got stolen). A year later the school acquired a ZX Spectrum which was housed with the science block. It was all very exciting, such that it occasionally and temporarily displaced burning interests in alcohol, cigarettes and certain photo journalism features of traditionally attired ladies in National Geographic magazine.
The BBC has a remit (to educate, entertain, inform). But this is not 1981. Which UK home that contains a person stimulated by maths, technology or computers science does not also already have a PC or and Android device?
This looks a lot like the BBC puffing itself up, and trying to needlessly and damagingly compete with people who are already informing, educating and entertaining, in much the same way that they are destroying the independent local press in the UK and crushing small production companies. George Osborne was not kidding when he described the BBC's ambitions and actions as having an imperial taint. If there is one thing an empire cannot tolerate it is an entity which offers an alterantive, however good, bad, big or small.
It might be smaller and faster, but can it play Elite?
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
This is the same mission that the Raspberry Pi was designed to fulfill. Even to the point of the Pi serving as the modern-day BBC Micro that it's designers has grown up with.
There's always room for more than one pedagogical computer intended for schoolkids, I guess.
So when are all the adult hackers gonna climb on this one and gripe about it, as many have with the Pi? (clue: it wasn't designed for you.)
....that's right...despite it being extraordinarily similar to those devices, and targeted at an extraordinarily similar market and for actually identical reasons....it's in no way competing! *cough*
*cough*
*cough*
Excuse me. I seem to have developed a *cough*. But each *cough* is entirely unique and unrealted to the previous *cough*.
There is only one real *cough* in this comment. Any fool can tell the difference.
I like that when I hover over the volume control on the video demoing this that it goes to 11.
"An add-on power pack, fitted with AA batteries, will be needed to use it as a standalone product."
"Each BBC Micro Bit will now use a discrete battery pack, which can be removed from the device."
I guess the /. editors can't even be fucking bothered to do any fact-checking, now days. Pretty much Soulskill, Timothy, and everyone else posting stories (advertisements) without exercising any proper journalism skills, you're all guilty of this shit.
NOWHERE in the article is USB-powered mentioned.
Oh, this computer is also touted as some latest-and-greatest thing...
"The Micro Bit is 18 times faster than its predecessor at running code"
18 times faster than the BBC Micro - which was fucking 2MHz. So... this is equivalent, maybe, to an overclocked 286/low-end 386?
My god, even CHIP is more entertaining than this.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
More important: in those days, a computer (any computing device) for your personal use, was the big new thing. PC's were in their early days, extremely costly for the average person, and mostly used in businesses for accounting tasks, text processing etc. In their own home, people had perhaps the odd electronic game (a la Pong), but that was it. Nothing more interesting, programmable or versatile. So when early home computers hit the market, it was a truly new, interesting and exciting thing.
These days, babies sleep in their cribs with their older siblings playing their Xbox or PS in the background. Chances are they'll get their hands on a game controller before they hit 3 years old or so. They grow up in a world where computing devices (big and small) are everywhere. Some of those available to use, tinker with etc for any budget. So when they hit an age where coding may become interesting, how to spark that interest? That's a big barrier right there for any educational project, regardless of what's possible hardware- or software-wise. That even the smallest devices today are much more complex than far bigger machines back then, sure doesn't help.
Back in the day, a computer for yourself was interesting to almost everyone. If nothing else, to get a feel for what it is. These days: meh... would-be-coders only. Regardless of age.
I don't think this will compete so much with the RaspberryPi, but it's clearly muscling in on Arduino territory. What a pity Arduino has stood still for so long. I know they've had some internal problems, but well before then the Arduino Uno was looking over-priced and long in the tooth. There are more powerful Arduinos but they are even more expensive, and lacking the focus which made the Uno such a success.
Compact, low-cost, low-power, modern processor, and built-in sensors and LEDs - the Micro Bit appears to have everything going for it as a successor to the ATmega328 based Arduinos. If the software support is as good as they promise, this will be a big hit.
And, once again, they've come up with an oddball, just for the sake of doing it.
The 1980's attempt was like an anemic version of an Apple II or Commodore Amiga. The BBC museum has been begging for volunteers to fix/maintain their 1980's computer systems. 30 years from now, they'll have the same problem with this new system.
The current [proposed] system is so watered down that any student will be bored within 1-2 years. A Raspberry Pi would delight well into adulthood. Also, a young adult will have a better time getting a job if they can claim Raspberry Pi experience [Pi's are starting to be used in real world applications like industrial controllers] as opposed to a "toy" system.
Given that the BBC is part of the UK gov't, perhaps they rejected the Pi because they couldn't convince the foundation that adding the anti-terrorist/surveillance tech [that Cameron has been yakking about] was a good idea. Or, that the Pi was "too powerful" for school children and could be used by terrorists ... Just sayin' ...
Like a good neighbor, fsck is there
Agreed, it would have been nice if they would have just developed an "education shield" for the Pi or the Arduino. For classrooms, an Arduino might have been better as they are very easy to program even for complete beginners: an Arduino and an IDE or CodeBender come close to the pgrogramming ease of the old computers with a BASIC command line. And for advanced students, there's already a whole range of other projects, sensors and shields out there they can sink their teeth into.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
The 1980's attempt was like an anemic version of an Apple II or Commodore Amiga.
The BBC Micro was 1/4 of the price of the Apple II and pre-dated the Amiga by several years, so that's hardly a fair comparison.
The current [proposed] system is so watered down that any student will be bored within 1-2 years.
You really don't think that something that can engage a school kid for a year or two isn't worthwhile?
Given that the BBC is part of the UK gov't, perhaps they rejected the Pi because they couldn't convince the foundation that adding the anti-terrorist/surveillance tech [that Cameron has been yakking about] was a good idea. Or, that the Pi was "too powerful" for school children and could be used by terrorists ... Just sayin' ...
I heard it was because the Pi generates a signal that blocks the Reptilian mind control devices implanted in every Freeview tuner...
By "extraordinarily similar" I presume you mean "not very similar".
The Arduino does almost nothing by itself, you need to add a shield just to blink an LED, or wire one up yourself. The only programming language it supports is a simplified C++, which isn't exactly ideal for teaching 11 year olds.
The Raspberry Pi is a full computer with video and sound output, operating system etc.
The MicroBit has an LED display and a number of peripherals built in. There is a custom software environment. These two factors are designed to support lessons given by teachers. They could have supplied an Arduino, custom software, shields etc. but it would have cost more and been more prone to failure, as well as needing assembly before it could be used. It could also have caused some confusion, because kids googling "arduino" would get lots of pages that were way out of their depth and suggesting that they nag their parents to buy more hardware.
The MicroBit is designed for a specific purpose. It's not really generic enough to compete with things like the Arduino, but it does have enough built-in to provide a number of interesting introductory lessons for children.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The BBC isn't part of the government, just publicly funded, in fact it fairly regularly annoys the government,
oh let me see now... because programming a 'real' computer is quite an abstract experience, or else a pointless one. Programming something with lights and buttons is far more immediate, and has a smaller learning curve. Kids up and down the UK will soon be writing scrolling messages to each other with this, where none of them did any sort of programming before.
This isn't a game-changer by any means, but it's a nice toy that will (hopefully) help a few kids realise that programming isn't all that hard, so long as you think about things in the right way. Maybe those same kids will want to go into tech jobs, or maybe they won't, but this little gadget looks like they'll have some fun at the very least.
The main feature of the old 8 bit computers was that you could plug them in and start programming in a simple environment - you didn't need anything else.
For most of those older computers the "development environment" was not built-in, it was an "extra cost" add on that was significantly expensive.
Sure you could program the Commodore 64 out of the box, but you didn't get far unless you also paid the extra big $$$ for the hardware manuals.
Raspberry Pi is some kind of Unix workstation with USB peripherals and a big firmware blob you have to cater to. Seems more complex than even a PC that runs DOS. A microcontroller that only runs your program, not an OS is simpler still.
Yes. Give the kids an Arduino and shield, or come up with their own design but make it compatible with the Arduino.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
So you don't understand. Gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up.
I stand corrected - I only glanced at the device briefly.
This "platform" requires even more "bits" to setup than a Raspberry Pi, which is really saying something because the Raspberry Pi includes almost nothing by design:
- no case
- no power supply
- no input device (keyboard/mouse)
- no output device (monitor)
This Micro Bit has no case and trivial input/output (a 5x5 grid of LEDs and two (2!) momentary switches. No provision for a keyboard, no provision for a display, and to program it requires a complete Windows (I assume) system to develop downloadable programs.
What games will children program on a 5x5 LED display? Word games are out, as are anything but the most trivial logic puzzle. Someone that is very, very interested could find a way to have some fun with this I'm certain, but as you said, this will be a huge step backwards for them, the average student, raised on iPhones and cheap Android tablets will look at this and yawn. Their teacher will march them through step-by-step instructions designed to teach the kids some abstract concept, but will instead only convince them that studying computers in school is a waste of time.
Ken
When I was growing up there were thousands of games that had horrible displays and were fun because we didn't have access to anything better - I'm thinking of the battery-operated "football" and "baseball" games that had a few buttons, a handful of LEDs, a generic playing field on the case, and some obnoxious sound effects.
How will this "toy" engage a child that was raised on today's video consoles and smart phones?
Ken
Yes, I agree. I've worked on/off as contractor for the BBC in the last few years. However, since I spend my time dissing them [without anonymity] I doubt that's still an option. The BBC seems to have whole departments labeled Wheel-Reinvention [Squarish Lab]. The last thing that went south was the Digital Media Initiative, after a multi-million pound failure this was renamed Don't Mention It.
That said, this thing is a brain-dead toylet [as opposed to toilet, a different, bigger, quite useful thing] born of Not-Invented-Here. I volunteer teach Code Club: https://www.codeclub.org.uk/ and this just complicates matters as a distraction. It won't run Scratch [Raspberry Pi will] or the sort-of of processing [as I understand it] that the Arduino will. It's not a progression in any sense, can't take expansions [as can Pi, as can Arduino].
My 'hope' was that it would make a good wearable, but as I currently understand, it's not really good for that either. Lilypad is probably better. Like most Brits, I really value the BBC, but it has lost its way somewhat at the moment.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
I had absolutely no clue that the British Broadcasting Corp designs computers.
I love the BBC micro, Archimedes and RISC PC -- I grew up on them. But why is the BBC doing this now? Every kid in the UK has a supercomputer in their pocket already, by 1981 standards. What is needed is a simpler and more compelling way for kids to get into programming their phones, and a simpler way to interface their phones to external hardware.
I had forgotten about the Commodore C64, which is a fairer comparison, given that it competed head on against the BBC micro in sales in the UK [per wiki on C64]. It came out one year later, but also consider the predecessor VIC-20 which came out at the same time as the BBC micro.
I was being kind about the 1-2 years. More like 1-2 months. Remember, this is going to 7th graders (~12 years old--they play video games and use cell phones). The Pi has enough in it to accommodate all of the curriculum from 7th-12th grade, but the BBC board does not.
Like a good neighbor, fsck is there
I value the BBC [and I'm an American]. Particularly, I'm a fan of the kinder/gentler/subtler comedies: As Time Goes By, Waiting for God, Joking Apart, The Good Life, To The Manor Born [or anything Penelope Keith does :-)].
But, they should [should have] stuck to broadcasting [what they do best]. It seems strange that they would delve into a microcomputer board for school children. This would be more the province of a department of education [or some such]. Perhaps, they have more spare cash to subsidize this.
But, they'd be far better off negotiating a bulk discount for the Pi [or equiv], rather than trying to design something that is as terrible as what they came up with. AFAIK, Pi's aren't discounted [because they're so inexpensive to begin with], but even at full price they're still a bargain.
Like a good neighbor, fsck is there
The Commodore is definitely a fairer comparison, and doesn't fare well against the BBC, either.
The BBC may have only had half the memory in its most common form, but it had expansion ports the C64 could only dream of, a far superior BASIC implementation (with a built-in assembler), networking, disk drives that couldn't also be used as space heaters (and before you go on about the extra 6502 inside the 1541 disk drive - how many people actually made use of it?), co-processors, multiple ROM slots, and full documentation. Oh and a power supply that didn't randomly melt.
It lost out to the C64 on price and the number of games available; and as everyone knows, the key factor in what computer you bought in the 80s was how many of your friends you could swap games with.
I had (and still have to this day) a C64, but always found the beeb significantly easier to program.
-Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience-
Right, except that you're forgetting that the MicroBit can be plugged into and programmed from a Raspberry Pi. You can't do that in the other direction, so the devices don't actually even fit the same use cases.