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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!
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.
They called it the Micro Bit, though. So it's the BBC Micro Bit. Considering their famous 1980s microcomputer, the BBC Micro... I think it's kind of an affectionate name.
It has a sort of poetry to it, too. The beeb made Acorn's BBC Model B (and later the Archimedes, which did well with compatibility) sell very well into schools. For the Archimedes, Acorn branched out into RISC chip design -- they literally designed their own chip for their computer. That little chip was the ARM -- Acorn RISC Machine... they used the second version of it in the Archimedes.
Unfortunately, they then made the foolish mistake of getting out of the thriving British-made home computer business, spinning off their chip design into a firm called Advanced RISC Machines, and they were never heard of again. Or something like that anyway.
CAPTCHA: yawner. RUDE!
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.
For a moment there I thought you were channeling Captain Haddock.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
....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.
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.
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
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.