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Raspberry Pi Becomes Third Best-Selling General Purpose Computer of All Time, Beating Commodore 64 (raspberrypi.org)
The Raspberry Pi has outsold the Commodore 64 by selling north of 12.5 million boards in five years, becoming the world's third best-selling general purpose computer. "The Commodore 64, had, until recently, the distinction of being the third most popular general purpose computing platform," Eben Upton told a crowd at the fifth birthday party. "That's what I'm here to celebrate," he said, "we are now the third most popular general purpose computing platform after the Mac and PC." The MagPi Magazine reports: The Raspberry Pi Model 3 is the best-selling Raspberry Pi. This chart shows that Raspberry Pi 3 has accounted for almost a third of all Raspberry Pi boards sold. The Model 3 sits next to its immediate predecessor, the Raspberry Pi 2B+ (which has the same board shape but a slightly slower CPU). These two boards account for over half of all Raspberry Pi boards sold. The rest of the sales are between older models. The original Model A accounts for just 2 percent of sales. So keep one if you've got it as they're pretty rare. We should point out, before the Commodore fan club arrives, that there are discrepancies in the total number of sales of the C64. The 12.5 million figure comes from an analysis of serial numbers. This article by Michael Steil explains in detail why the 12.5 million number is accurate. We hold it to be the most accurate analysis of Commodore 64 sales (other opinions are available).
Say it ain't so!!
Of course, if you're going to get to count all different things branded as "Rasberry Pi" in aggregate... seems a bit unfair but ok, I'm sure that's some sort of achievement.
If the Raspberry Pi is the second most popular computer (dubious claim considering that there are several models of it), and the Commodore 64 is the third most popular computer, what is considered to be the most popular computer of all time? My hunch would be the Apple II, but I wouldn't be surprised if iMac was on the top 5 list.
Intel CPU Backdoor Report (Updated Mar 13, 2017)
The goal of this report is to make the existence of Intel CPU backdoors a common knowledge and provide information on backdoor removal.
What we know about Intel CPU backdoors so far:
TL;DR version
Your Intel CPU and Chipset is running a backdoor as we speak.
The backdoor hardware is inside the CPU/Bridge and the backdoor firmware (Intel Management Engine) is in the chipset flash memory.
30C3 Intel ME live hack:
@21m43s, keystrokes leaked from Intel ME above the OS, wireshark failed to detect packets.
[Video Link] 30C3: Persistent, Stealthy, Remote-controlled Dedicated Hardware Malware
[Quotes] Vortrag:
"DAGGER exploits Intel's Manageability Engine (ME), that executes firmware code such as Intel's Active Management Technology (iAMT), as well as its OOB network channel."
"the ME provides a perfect environment for undetectable sensitive data leakage on behalf of the attacker."
"We have recently improved DAGGER's capabilites to include support for 64-bit operating systems and a stealthy update mechanism to download new attack code."
"To be more precise, we show how to conduct a DMA attack using Intel's Manageability Engine (ME)."
"We can permanently monitor the keyboard buffer on both operating system targets."
Quotes on Intel backdoors:
A message from RMS
by Richard Stallman on Dec 29, 2016 09:45 AM
The current generation of Intel and AMD processor chips are designed with vicious back doors that users cannot shut off. (In Intel processors, it's the "management engine".)
No users should trust those processors.
Backdoor removal:
The backdoor firmware can be removed by following this guide using the me_cleaner script.
Removal requires a Raspberry Pi (with GPIO pins) and a SOIC clip.
Decoding Intel backdoors:
The situation is out of control and the Libreboot/Coreboot community is looking for BIOS/Firmware experts to help with the Intel ME decoding effort.
If you are skilled in these areas, download Intel ME firmwares from this collection and have a go at them, beware Intel is using a lot of counter measures to prevent their backdoors from being decoded (explained below).
Useful links:
The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't be audited
REcon 2014 - Intel Management Engine Secrets
Untrusting the CPU (33c3)
Towards (reasonably) trustworthy x86 laptops
30C3 To Protect And Infect - The militarization of the Internet
30c3: To Protect And Infect Part 2 - Mass Surveillance Tools & Software
1. Introduction, what is Intel ME
Short version, from Intel staff:
Re: What Intel CPUs lack Intel ME secondary processor?
Amy_Intel Feb 8, 2016 9:27 AM
The Management Engine (ME) is an isolated and p
That is a real stretch. A PC Board compared to a Product. Why Not Arduinos?
Or is thid like Pluto and they are Dwarf Computers.
It seems like a bit of a stretch to call it that. There are the basic features I would consider a "General Purpose" computer to have (and, to be fair, the Raspberry Pi has many of them):
- Wall (or POE) Power Supply
- SSD/HHD (the SD Card of the Raspberry Pi could probably be considered that)
- USB Ports for Keyboard/Mouse (Raspberry Pi has that)
- Video Output (Raspberry Pi has that)
- Network Connection (Raspberry Pi has that)
- Ready to use OS (I guess Raspberry Pi could be considered to have that with Raspbian)
More philosophically, I would consider a General Purpose computer to be one that you take out of the box, plug in and turn on - the Raspberry Pi really doesn't fit that use case which makes it hard for me to consider it a "General Purpose" computer.
I would consider it to be a very successful "Custom Purpose" computer, however.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Is more powerful than the C64.
If you are going to make a comparison that includes multiple product versions of the Pi then you need to do the same for other manufacturers and frankly I would be shocked if it has outsold any of the big OEM product line series and for the commodore you would also need to include the other models.
...Commodore 64 came complete with a keyboard, power supply and RF modulator / Video out/Audio out - and ready to use.
And it was sold at a much higher price point, plus it wasn't really a dev-kit like the PI is. The PI is cute, but it's on the level with Arduino (faster of course), and other similar "devboards". So, if we're there - I can imagine there's a lot more sold Arduino Nano V3 Chinese clones sold than all the PI's in the world.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Congrats RPI! LOVE my Pi3s and Zeros! I makes them into NeaT StufFs! http://www.thingiverse.com/thi...
I would consider a General Purpose computer to be one that you take out of the box, plug in and turn on
so basically any computer less than 10 years old is OUT according to your definition because older systems required network cards, sound cards, video cards, RAM, etc. to be installed in the computer first.
what an idiot
Open firmware: https://github.com/christinaa/...
Coders wanted. Linux bring-up is done, needs USB and display to be more useful. Discussion happens on Freenode IRC #raspberrypi-internals
When this popular embedded platform has a fully functional open firmware to use instead of the proprietary bootcode.bin then I'll be a little more cheery about the success of the Raspberry Pi worldwide.
SIGERR: laziness exceeds quota
Not a surprise. To run win 10 you need 1000 of them.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
This is 12.5 million units across how many different models of RPi? If I'm going to count all versions of RPi, what are total sales of Dell Latitude? How many total MacBooks of all versions have been sold?
Also c64 sold 12-30 million units. Creative misuse of numbers on the RPi part.
how many C64 do you need to hook up in parralell to get the power of one Pi?
And the C64 cost $595 (equivalent to $1495 in today's dollars). They aren't comparable.
Except you could fit the entire C64 in a TQFP package these days - except perhaps the floppy drive - and crank it out for a few cents a pop.
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
Why not add in the Vic 20, and the 128.
News flash! More toy plastic watches are sold than fine Rolexes.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I don't count the PlayStation 2 because you can't browse the web with it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_consoles
Once again the Amiga doesn't get it's due.
The Commodore 64 is "the best-selling home computer of all time" which is based on the fact that the Commodore 64 is a very specific model of computer. The Raspberry Pi 3 IS NOT the same thing as a Raspberry Pi. That's like saying the Commodore 128 is the same thing as the Commodore 64. The C64C was "the same thing" as the C64 because it was a cost-reduced version that was otherwise a completely identical piece of hardware. Each RPi is a completely different computer from the core chip to the peripherals to the I/O.
Combining all computers that are branded Raspberry Pi and saying they have sold more units combined than the Commodore 64 is one thing, but saying "The Pi has beaten the C64 as the most units of a single computer sold" is an outright lie. The Pi series is also not a computer made for general-purpose use; it's an embedded system, and by that standard I'm willing to bet that there's some model of wireless router that has sold more units than the C64; perhaps the venerable Linksys WRT54G?
tl;dr: the C64 still holds the crown. The article is based on bullshit logic.
The C64 is still the best-selling model of computer of all time. The fact, (assuming that it is even true,) that more individual Raspberry Pi's have been sold in absolute numbers ignores the fact that there are MORE PEOPLE buying computers, and few people are using the RP as anything more than a toy, or for hobby purposes, while the C64 was sold as a REAL general purpose computer. The Pi simply occupies a specialized niche, and only sells as well as it does because it's so cheap that it's a trivial purchase for most people who own one. Undoubtably, many people who own one RP actually own several, because again, they're trivial purchases for most owners. A C64 was hundreds of dollars, JUST FOR THE COMPUTER, to say nothing of the cost of needed peripherals, without which it's not a useable computer. You'd need, as a minimum, a Datasette or a 1541 or 1571 Floppy Disc Drive, and maybe a modem, plus other things like software, etc. While an RP might score over the C64 in that respect, it does highlight the point that a computer user in the 1980s who wanted to buy a fully functioning, general purpose computer and chose a C64, and owned no computer or parts before, would need the computer itself, a floppy disk drive, software, a monitor, a printer, and maybe a joystick or two... plus maybe a MODEM, (there was less to do with one in those days,) a users or programming guide, if one wanted to edit or create software, disks, something to put the disks in... it was a lot more than 35 bucks, and don't forget that the roughly thousand or so bucks you'd have to drop on all that stuff, was worth WAY more than the equivalent number today.
Further, if they haven't adjusted for the changes in both the entire total population of the planet Earth, of humans, and the changes in the size of the total market who might be able to buy a computer, then again, they're comparing apples and oranges. It would be like bragging about your new model of car outselling the Model T Ford. Whoopity fucking doo. Congratulations, Pi guys... your toy outsold a computer that was instrumental in the popularization of the general purpose home computer. Sleep well tonight.
agreed price the c64 at that price and any one with even the slightest interest would have got one. there is today considerably more interest in computers and tech as well tinkering today as well.
The Raspberry Pi is a circuit board for hobbyists --- one component of the kit of parts you'll need for various projects. The C-64 and its cassette or disk drive a home PC designed for mass market sale. No assembly required.
C64/RPi Similarities:
1. Both are computers.
2. Both are currently gathering dust in people's cupboards.
My apple v commodore feelings came back. Oh to reminisce. We are old....
The Commodore 64 sold for all those years and millions of units with the same processor, ui and Os.
Each time you change an OS, UI, or processor, you're really making a different computer.
Sure, but why would you?
...it comes with a power supply and keyboard and can connect to old televisions, try that with Raspberry Pi.
This is a bit like saying that some movie released this year has broken all previous box-office records. Of course it breaks all those records: tickets cost more than they did 10 years ago.
In this case, the population of the world has increased quite a bit since the release of the C64. Also, computing isn't just a hobby for some minuscule fraction of nerds with money. Computing is huge these days with many more people in the market for hobby-style tech. Finally, the Pi is orders of magnitude less expensive than the C64 was.
All of these things make a simple units-sold comparison useless. A better comparison might be dollars-spent or fraction-of-market-reached. It would be hard to estimate the size of the hobby-programmer market both now and then, I suppose.
Also, where would the Pi be without the C64 having existed in the past? The C64 created the hobby-programmer, the Pi is just taking advantage of the existing market of those same people.
Geez, rpi fanboys in full swing today.
C64 was... In the 1980's. Computers weren't in the mainstream yet. That says a lot how monumental the C64 was. Rpi is basically cheap phone tech and there's what? Few billion phones out there nowadays. Computing is affordable and mainstream. Progress.
And considering you have a 4yr old BBB or odroid that [still] costs $25 more than a rpzero and still out performs it in general uses shouts hype news.
You can get an old 8052 processor if you want to build something similar, but if you want something in a small surface mount package the cheapest is actually going to be a 32 bit ARM, with a few 8 bit AVR and PIC micros close behind. But expect to pay over a dollar if you want 64K RAM, not a few cents.
I bought my first C64 in 1984 for $199 with the C1541 5.25" floppy disk drive for another $199 at the BX on Keesler AFB. I still have them and they still work. I just hooked it up to a TV the other day to look for some text files I had on a disk. My 1084 monitor died unfortunately and finding one in my area has been impossible. I've also got 16 Raspberry Pi boards. 2 original B, 2 of the B2 boards, 4 A+ boards, 4 Rpi B3 boards, 2 pi zero boards and now 2 pi zeroW boards. I've got about half of them in use at the moment with 6 running cameras on a surveillance system. 1 with libreelec media center on it and 1 with retropie for games. I also have one that I have set up as a desktop and I sometimes use it just to fool around. That's the thing about the Pi. It's got so much it can do but they're so cheap you tend to just collect them. They use next to no power so if you want to run a torrent 24/7 it's almost free as far as electrical power so why tie up your big quad core Intel beast for something trivial? If you fry one experimenting ( I use the old first generation ones for that) it's not a big deal. Once I build a box to connect my 1541 I'm going to pull all the data off my old 5.25 floppies before I can't. I'm kind of shocked that I haven't lost any as far as I can tell, it's over 30 years now.
They're building a very nice FPGA accelerator for the Commodore Amiga system. Basically building a very fast version of a Motorola 68060 for less than the price of an old Motorola chip if you could even find one. It also does a lot of very neat things to speed up all phases of the Amiga. I never would have believed such a thing was possible 20 years ago.
http://www.apollo-accelerators...
http://store.go4retro.com/zoom...
I bought one of those, but I'm having trouble getting a disk drive so I can pull data off old diskettes while I still can... Lucky you to still have one that works!
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
I've got 3. And a C1581 3.5" drive for it as well. I need to ebay this stuff. I don't need 3 C64 systems. I would like a nice 1084S though.
I have got an Atari style joystick which has a TV out and contains an entire Commodore 64 and several games for it.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
I just pulled mine out and shared it with my son who is learning the whole retro gaming scene. Challenged him to take it apart and add keyboard and storage with instructions on the internet.