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BBC Reveals Its New Microcomputer Design

Posted by Soulskill on from the hackers:-the-next-generation dept.

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.

1 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The difference... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh get over yourself.

    What it looks like to me is that the BBC have done something interesting: they've made a tiny, simple, deliberately friendly little computer that is designed to be really programmed (unlike Android phones and countless other things), has sensors and inputs that are easy to use, has LEDs that make it cute and fun, could be used as a tiny little computer, in technology lessons, connected up to real things, with none of the distraction power of a tablet device, none of the 'just use it like a PC with a monitor and keyboard' aspects that are collecting around the Raspberry Pi, and WAY more of the imagination. Plus it can connect to all the devices you are talking about.

    The Beeb will make next to no money out of this -- if anything. They've already committed that they will not make money out of it on the world market, which is thriving and competitive. This is a perfectly Reithian thing; it's too small to threaten any competitor, and can indeed work with them.

    And do you know what is ruining the local press? It sure isn't the BBC. What killed the local press was the Daily Mail General Trust, which turned every single newspaper it earned into a small local paramilitary offshoot of their tawdry bullshit. Local papers were shit before the BBC went heavily local.