Raspberry Pi Wins UK's Top Engineering Award (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader shares a BBC report: The team behind the device was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering's MacRobert Prize at a ceremony in London last night. The tiny computer launched in 2012. Its designers hoped to introduce children to coding and had modest ambitions. They beat two other finalists, cyber-security company Darktrace and radiotherapy pioneers Vision RT, to win the prize. Previous winners of the innovation award, which has been run since 1969, include the creators of the CT (computerised tomography) scanner; the designers of the Severn Bridge; and the team at Microsoft in Cambridge that developed the Kinect motion sensor.

Comments

Sweet! Congratulations!!!!

[mallyn]

I really enjoy working with the PI. It's one of the easiest and most powerful platforms that I have used! I am so glad of this news!!!!

Re:Sweet! Congratulations!!!!

[TheGratefulNet]

a power button was too much to ask for, though, it seems ;(

and usb/ethernet is still broken-by-design.

after all these years, still no sata, either.

feh.

Re:Sweet! Congratulations!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

a power button was too much to ask for, though, it seems ;(

and usb/ethernet is still broken-by-design.

after all these years, still no sata, either.

feh.

Why should they? People who buy from Raspberry buy it because of the brand. People who want eSATA, 1Gbps ethernet or even a reset button know enough to buy a better model.

Re:Sweet! Congratulations!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, just shoot the BOM cost all to fuck for no reason.

Why do you need a power button? Can you implement a usb/ethernet soultion that's better for the same price or less? 64 gig microSD cards are like 15 bucks. Why do you need more storage than that? What are you doing, running a fileserver?

The raspi is successful because the creators ignore whiny edge case users exactly like yourself.

If you want a PC, buy a PC. There are plenty of other arm based boards that have what you want. They aren't as well supported or are more expensive (Usually both) but you can have your gigabit Ethernet and your sata and your power button.

Re:Sweet! Congratulations!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Go buy a different board - that costs more, and doesn't have a huge support community.

Re:Sweet! Congratulations!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the only whiny edge case around here is you. Clearly mental, can't accept any criticism of the Pi for whatever reason. Maybe time to check if the dosage is correct, or at least make sure you actually take your meds?

Re:Sweet! Congratulations!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Good ethernet should not require extra cost. Even the boards cheaper than the Pi have it. Just check the armbian site for a board that is supported and has what you want.

Re:Sweet! Congratulations!!!!

[arglebargle_xiv]

Those were my feelings as well, obviously no EE's were involved in choosing who to give the award to.

They are jealous

[Anonymous Coward]

Europe is jealous of our American know-how, freedom and democracy and so fine us and withhold awards and respect.

If they hate our freedom so much why dont they invent their own system and stop the criticism and whining.

Re:They are jealous

[unixisc]

Does Europe lose bragging rights on Raspberry Pi due to Brexit? Interesting that Minix chose its ARM implementation to be on the Beaglebone rather than Raspberry Pi. A combination of Minix on the Pi would have been a very good learning platform

American equivalents of that - Beaglebone & Arduino. But I'd like to see a US solution that's not based on the British ARM, but on a US born CPU, such as RISC-V or MIPS. Or maybe even SPARC or Power.

Re:They are jealous

[Anonymous Coward]

ARM is Japanese

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/18/tech-giant-arm-holdings-sold-to-japanese-firm-for-24bn

Re:They are jealous

[Anonymous Coward]

Arduino... American? Not quite ;)

Re:They are jealous

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Yes, it was developed in the Japanese city of Kenburijji.

Re:They are jealous

[unimacs]

Are the British Isles moving because of Brexit? ;-)

Pretty sure the UK will still be part of Europe whether they're in the European Union or not.

Anyway I just received my 2nd Pi Zero W (built in wifi) this week. The first one was faulty. It could only see Access Points that were very close. Apparently it's not been an isolated problem. The 2nd one works great and the range is pretty impressive considering the lack of an external antenna. Incredibly versatile, fun, and inexpensive device. So congratulations to them.

Re:They are jealous

[Anonymous Coward]

Minix

Who?

But I'd like to see a US solution that's not based on the British ARM, but on a US born CPU, such as RISC-V or MIPS. Or maybe even SPARC or Power.

This statement is so stupid an explanation would be lost on you.

Re:They are jealous

[catchblue22]

Arduino è italiano

(thanks Google translate)

Re:They are jealous

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL @ anti British for the sake of being anti British. AMERIKA INVENT ENTIRE COMPOTER... oh but wait, there were a bunch of russians, hungarians and british scientists and engineers and many other nations who all lay the foundations of what computers are today. Also fuck you brexit has nothing to do with this. how about I TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP you huh?

Re: They are jealous

[Anonymous Coward]

Giusto, picciotto. OmertÃ!

Re:They are jealous

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it was developed in the Japanese city of Kenburijji.

Uh... no, says the entire history of ARM.

Re:They are jealous

[bib1620]

I think that was sarcasm.

Re:They are jealous

[serviscope_minor]

So was that

Re:They are jealous

[Anonymous Coward]

"Are the British Isles moving because of Brexit? ;-)"

There is a rumor that they might row the island over to America if the negotiations with EU fail... :P Row row row your boat...

Re:Congratulations but... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Offtopic, babbling rant ... must be apk. It is pretty obvious that he is mentally ill, but I wonder what exactly does he suffer from.

That badly designed PoS?

[gweihir]

Seriously? This award cannot have anything to do with real engineering....

Re:That badly designed PoS?

[gweihir]

Hahahaha, no. All the morons that use this PoS get what they deserve: Bad networking, bad USB, bad, sensitive I/O lines, bad thermal behavior, and a lot more design fails that an actual engineer would never have made. The only thing they did well is marketing.

Congrats/kudos (sincere), but... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: Pi's suggested as part of a defense vs. AMT/Intel Mgt. Engine security woes - ports 16992-16995 so filter those ports in a modem/router external to OS/PC.

* No "raspberry PI" needed plus once you disable the AMT engine's software interface (ez)? A malware to 'repatch' this = impossible (bios updaters require it in usermode ware, e.g. ASUS).

(I only allow 80, 8080 & 443 in/out here on a SINGLE stand-alone system (no home LAN but TCP/IP connected online in BOTH my modem or router port filters or software firewalls))

HOWEVER - Be CERTAIN your modem/router's internal ware is "solid" as well (turn off things like UPnP etc. & HAS NO KNOWN BACKDOOR EXPLOITS (tons do unfortunately)) - get it patched ASAP if it's KNOWN exploited & TONS of routers, ARE https://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9995967&cid=53488785/

GOOD ROUTERS/MODEMS HAVE PORT FILTERING OPTIONS (crappy ones do not)!

* Good luck - it's the BEST EASIEST & CHEAPEST DEFENSE using what you already have (hopefully, again as not ALL modems have port filtering but most do & certainly GOOD ONES DO) vs. this threat by stopping it being able to communicate in/out period, outside of the INTEL chipset, & stopped external to it via a router/firewall hardware.

APK

P.S.=> OTHER THAN THAT, kudos to them from me (& not that using Pi to do the removal etc. of this is bad - it just costs money you don't NEED to spend in the case of Intel AMT)!

Yes, I can do that. Some here tout it over what I use (firewalls & hosts) but I will give credit where it's due too (IIRC, it's also used for 'robotics' too? Correct me IF I am off... I thought most of THAT was the province of "arduino" here!)... apk

Re:Congrats/kudos (sincere), but... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop spamming you fucking retard. Everybody knows already that you are batshit crazy.

Guess Who "No time left 4U"... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: "NO TIME LEFT 4U - on my way to BETTER THINGS (I found myself some wings)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-VUnAuysMM/

* Sorry if you've monies invested in Pi but what I said must work OR you wouldn't have "downmod bombed" me 3x, unjustifiably, MINUS proving me validly/technically wrong... lol!

(Between THAT & trolling/harassing me via UNIDENTIFIABLE anonymous posts? It's PRETTY OBVIOUS... & soon I'll run you DRY of your "downmodpoints" easily enough by reposting until you do, hahaha!)

GROW UP!

APK

P.S.=> Grow up - you're just (& I haven't done THIS in a while, but here goes - situation DEMANDS it) "too, Too, TOO EASY (just '2ez') to outthink, outsmart & just plain OUT, chump... apk

Re:Congratulations but... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Well smear me with tar and call me a niggur!

Get on topic & U wish U were this 'crazy'

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to continue using the Host File Engine. Your software is well written, functional. The Host File Engine performs exactly as promised by mmell

his hosts program is actually pretty good by xenotransplant

his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources by alexgieg

(APK's) work, I've flat out said it's good by BronsCon

APK is kinda right. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works by bmo

I like your host file system by Karmashock

I find your hosts file admirable by vel-ex-tech

APK your posts on this and the hosts file posts, and more, have never been in error and/or bad advice by BlueStrat

* My code's recommended/hosted by Malwarebytes' hpHosts!

APK

P.S.=> Guess Who: "Baby I'll be there to shake your hand" (PI) & "I'll be there to share the land" https://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10807075&cid=54720289/ ... apk

Well deserved-

[WolfgangVL]

It's pretty great when a platform comes along and snares giant subsets of people across multiple disciplines.

The Pi has earned its place in pop culture, industry, creativity, criminal and business enterprise, education... the list goes on and on.

I've personally introduced a handful of very young people to the pi as both a robotics, and IoT platform, and watched them sprout from typical minecraft zombie, to budding bot-and-automation-expert in training.

And that price point? Pretty Amazing.

Kudos to the Raspberry Pie Foundation, they really are changing the world.

I just wish shipping and availability was not such an issue, but it's fine 80% of the time, and suppliers always make it right.... with time.

Re:Well deserved-

[Anonymous Coward]

The Pi3 price point is kinda "meh" at this point - There are a number of competitors at the same price point that are way better.

The killer hardware here is the Pi Zero - $5? $10 if you want built in wifi with the Zero W? That's the killer app.

Re:Well deserved-

[Anonymous Coward]

RPI is a huge marketing success. Looking at it from an engineering perspective, it's a bit "640k is enough for everyone".

Powersupply is working at the very limits of the envelope (voltage, not current), no power switch, the usb controller is overloaded, 100Mbit ethernet is what you get and the amount of RAM is quite limited unless you are just using it for simple things.

It's like VHS all over again, it's actually quite a shitty little device, but everyone is supporting it, making it kind of the obvious choice. An engineering miracle it is not.

Re:Well deserved-

[Anonymous Coward]

People like u always miss the point... it's supposed to be as cheap as possible while still comfortably running headless linux for hacking GPIO or i2c... If they were picky about specs it would just have been another mini pc forgotten in history and in the hands of no kids or hackers.

Re:Well deserved-

[Anonymous Coward]

No, I'm not missing the point. You are.

The point is that these are simple cheap things that could have been addressed without making the design significantly more expensive, but were not, and subsequently causes problems completely disproportionate to the alleged savings they represent. The micro usb adapter being a prime example. Allegedly you can save money by using one you have in a drawer. However, in reality, if you have an adapter which is actually capable of driving the RPI flawlessly, it might mean one of two things:

Either you're not taxing the PI at all, and could probably implement your project on something cheaper, or you are probably going to need to use that adapter for your phone pretty soon, because that's an adapter for a pretty modern, high-end 'phone.

To get around all the problems associated with dodgy micro-usb adapters, people tend to buy the "official adapter" along with their PI. Now, tell me how much they saved, compared to buying an "official adapter" with a barrel connector, which actually could supply the device with enough volts/amps to make it run reliably...

And not having a power switch on a device meant for experimentation and tinkering, necessitating to pull the cables causing wear on the connectors every time you need to power-cycle? That's a joke, and a bad one at that.

Re:Well deserved-

[WolfgangVL]

It really does look like you are missing the point.

The whole idea behind the pie is to make not just cheap hardware, but really cheap hardware that the young are not worried about smoking. Every corner has been cut, not the just the expensive ones. It's designed from the start as an educational development board.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation works to put the power of digital making into the hands of people all over the world, so they are capable of understanding and shaping our increasingly digital world, able to solve the problems that matter to them, and equipped for the jobs of the future.

We provide low-cost, high-performance computers that people use to learn, solve problems and have fun. We provide outreach and education to help more people access computing and digital making. We develop free resources to help people learn about computing and how to make things with computers, and train educators who can guide other people to learn.

You WANT the kid to have to pull the juice for every reset, and you want him to eventually come to the same point you made, and you want him to wire a momentary into the reset pin, or a slide to the +/-. Hell, you want the kid to make his own from popsicle sticks and tinfoil. It's cheap enough to let them fail on the basics.THAT'S the point you're missing. It says "Educational electronics kit" on the box for that very reason. GONE are the days of "DONT TOUCH THAT" that you and I grew up in.

If your building out a headless web-server for a production environment, the pi just aint for you. If, on the other hand, your teaching the local punk kid how to setup an auto nutrient system for his little underground grow op, the pi hits a sweet spot that nothing else can even come close enough to touch, and if nothing else comes of it, you might get a discount 3 months from now.... best case? You've just changed a life. Power is measured with more than multimeters and clock cycles.

If you ARE in a production environment, and need to setup a wireless or ethernet bridge to get the bosses thingimajigger talking on yet another network, it takes all of 10 minutes to spin up a bridge with the bosses cell charger.

And then there's Retropie....
      Nintendo sure noticed that one...
And then there's Adafruit tuts...
    Maybe take a look, doubly so if you're a parent. Good shit there....
And then there's Thingiverse....
    3D printing and dev boards go together like a mouse and keyboard; you can use each alone, but soooo much better together.
Did you know you can build a rubberducky with a pi-zero? Security is fun.

Like I said above... the list goes on and on and on.... I love the little bugger, not for what it can do, but for what it's user can do LATER.

And for the record, I power an overclocked Pie 3 off the USB on my Samsung plasma pushing 4 player Bomberman, and Mariocart64- every weekend. Your adapter bitch is weak.

Re:Well deserved-

[thegarbz]

Powersupply is working at the very limits of the envelope (voltage, not current), no power switch, the usb controller is overloaded, 100Mbit ethernet is what you get and the amount of RAM is quite limited unless you are just using it for simple things.

What a load of drivel. Firstly with "operating at the very limits of the envelope". Wtf are you even talking about? 5V is standard and it operates within specs of standard 5V devices. The very limits would be the never ending push towards low power and low current where 3.3V or 1.8V are even more popular. There's nothing "at the very limits" for the PSU.

And the entire rest of your comment completely fails to understand the purpose of the device, its design choices, and the reason why it is as popular as it is. 640k is enough for everyone who needs 640k. I mean shit 640k is a luxury for many applications. The RPi is stupidly overpowered for 99% of the applications where it is used. The remaining 1% are idiots who bough the wrong device because they were too cheap and thought $35 should get you everything.

Re:Well deserved-

[Anonymous Coward]

You sir, are a moron and doesn't know jack shit about electricity. That's all there is to it.

The adapter is limited to 5V and can never deliver any more than that. Depending on your adapter, it might not even reach that if you happen to have a bad one.

The cable have resistance, which according to old Ohm causes the voltage to drop. This means that you're getting less than 5V at the device. Depending on the quality of your micro usb cable, it can be pretty close, or it can be significantly less

So, already there you have two possibilities to have less than 5V at the device. Possibly even a lot less.

Now, the PI is an electronic device - not a motor - so it needs its 5V. It simply doesn't work well with less. It doesn't matter if your adapter can deliver 2 or 3.5A, you can't compensate for the drop in voltage by increasing the current.

This is not just some hypothetical example. There are lots and lots and lots of people on the RPI forums who have all kinds of weird problems, and invariably they are told to get another adapter, which frequently ameliorates the problem. None of these people would have had a problem with a better power source. So, using micro usb is a real problem, which affects real people. All because the designer decided to be cheap to the point of being stupid. Also, as I already pointed out, the money you allegedly could save by this arrangement is at this point extremely hypothetical, since most people buy the official adapter with their PI to begin with, hence mooting the entire rationale for going with micro usb in the first place!

No, it doesn't fail to understand anything, other than apologists who try to deflect any kind of valid criticism against shoddy engineering which severely hampers the device because it's design cuts corners to the point where it's just plain stupid. Seriously, you don't think you could fit a power switch in a $35 budget? Do you really believe that, or is it just another example of corner cutting to the point of being counter productive for the purported use of the device?

Re:Well deserved-

[Anonymous Coward]

Aha, so in essence you're saying it's designed to fail from wearing out the connectors. Gotcha. Stupid, but I guess that's one way to sell more of them. "Kids having to pull the juice" has to be about the stupidest justification for not putting in a power switch ever. As if kids couldn't learn by pushing a button, designed for that purpose rather than pulling a cord. *scoff*

Secondly, "it's for education" cop-out is really getting old. The last thing you want when you're using a tool to learn something is to be in the position that you have to wonder whether it failed because you failed, or the tool itself failed.

Thirdly, yeah the adapter bitch it's weak. It's so weak that it takes some rather dedicated mental filtering to browse the forums to not see all the people who run into problems because of flaky adapters or cables.

Finally, people who do neat and useful stuff with the PI does it despite its design, not thanks to it. The contention never was that it's useless or can't be made to work - just like VHS was for many years fit for what it was used for, or the 640k - but that the margins are way too thin and the reasons given for cutting corners to the extent they are makes no sense neither from a cost nor from a usability point of view. In fact they are cut in a way which not only artificially limits its capabilities but as the proverbial cherry on top, creates a whole host of different problems for no good reasons at all. In plain English, the trade offs are really not worth the insignificant or even imaginary cost savings.

Re:Well deserved-

[WolfgangVL]

Alright AC, wife's asleep, kids are gone, and I'm drinkin'. I just beat beat streetfighter III on 1 credit, HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!

Aha, so in essence you're saying it's designed to fail from wearing out the connectors. Gotcha. Stupid

It's designed to teach. It's as if you unhappy with the plastic beach shovel because you can't dig the moat around your yard with it.

but I guess that's one way to sell more of them.

Don't be silly, 10M+ Sold. We buy more because we keep showing the kids how to build things.

"Kids having to pull the juice" has to be about the stupidest justification for not putting in a power switch ever. As if kids couldn't learn by pushing a button, designed for that purpose rather than pulling a cord. *scoff*

KID CANNOT PUSH THE BUTTON IF YOU DISABLE HIS HAND! j/k, you are obviously not a parent, and as such, are not expected to understand how incredibly stupid that statement reads. No worries buddy, I'm sure there is some angry old bitch out there looking for you too.

Secondly, "it's for education" cop-out is really getting old.

Tough shit buddy, we're going to keep teaching the next generation, like it or not. God-damn curmudgeon. There's a kid on yer lawn.

Thirdly, yeah the adapter bitch it's weak. It's so weak that it takes some rather dedicated mental filtering to browse the forums to not see all the people who run into problems because of flaky adapters or cables.

My 10 year old built a power-switch out of tin-foil, maybe he can help you out? Those stupid forums are for children anyway, right?

Finally, people who do neat and useful stuff with the PI does it despite its design, not thanks to it.

That's the whole idea you crotchety old fucker, you make to see if you can. Any fool can spin a LAMP server out of a pile of old dead computers, but it takes a special kind of maker to make dad a wifi coffee machine that remembers when and how I want it. Even if mom hates the look of it.

The contention never was that it's useless or can't be made to work - just like VHS was for many years fit for what it was used for, or the 640k - but that the margins are way too thin and the reasons given for cutting corners to the extent they are makes no sense neither from a cost nor from a usability point of view. In fact they are cut in a way which not only artificially limits its capabilities but as the proverbial cherry on top, creates a whole host of different problems

I agree with this entire statement. You and I can hangout after all. I knew you would come around, lets build another time machine.

for no good reasons at all.

It's like your not absorbing the things you've been reading. Maybe it's all of that shit between your ears?

In plain English, the trade offs are really not worth the insignificant or even imaginary cost savings.

These are not trade-offs clownshoe, nor are they done to save costs, but rather to force the user to adapt the board to his/her own needs. If it did have a powers-witch I bet you would be crying about how you always have to turn this damn thing on yourself.

Do yourself a favor. Meet a young person. Teach them the difference between this shit board, that shit board, and whatever you would use instead. Show them how to measure the voltage drop over a sub-par powercable. Explain to them exactly why it's better to spin up hardware with a powerswitch. Extol the virtues of the all holy barrel connector, even though all the young person knows is mini/micro USB and those godforsaken apple chargers. Show them how to write 640k worth of python or c or whatever you want. Lead that young person through your process of concept-design-build..... or you know.... don't.

I bet this formatting is atrocious... SEND IT!

Re:Congrats/kudos (sincere), but... apk

[FilmedInNoir]

I don't think it's a human, I think it's just a bot that generates shit posts.

Re:Congrats/kudos (sincere), but... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

FilmedInNoir don't flatter yourself. Thought's a foreign concept for you, a fake name for a fake life "ne'er-do-well" loser online.

Big talk FAKE name for FAKE life troll... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

When you can show our /. peers say THIS about YOUR work as I can, partial list only https://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10807075&cid=54720553/ + that you have a BETTER cheaper easier solution you came up w/ vs. the Intel mgt. engine threat as I have? Then shoot your trap off chump!

(Afaik, only time I've seen the latter + me suggesting it, but I figure a decently skilled (unlike you apparently FAKE name FAKE life fool) network admin/coder would come up w/ it too https://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10807075&cid=54720289/ - I haven't seen it YET though...)

IIRC? Only 1 other /.ers done decent coding work (other than severely notable ones like Torvalds or Carmack) - are you one of them & can YOU prove it?

APK

P.S.=> Let's see equal OR BETTER from you & we can compare notes (RUN, Forrest: RUN!!! is what you'll do, but I'll give you a shot @ redeeming yourself blowhard - IF you can, & if by some MIRACLE you can? Then, I'll see if you've done more, better & earlier than I can easily demonstrate tons more in, & from only a partial small list of my favs only - just to start the show (which will be amusing to YOUR dismay publicly I say - always IS w/ "your kind"))... apk

Re: Congrats/kudos (sincere), but... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

Still better than creamier's shitposts.

Another perspective for you... apk

[Anonymous Coward]

See subject: I didn't say it - it's decades old & affected me deeply (hopefully you too) from a great man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8HdOHrc3OQ/

* Listen, & understand - the world, especially today, really, Really, REALLY needs it... but WTF do I know? Enlighten me otherwise.

APK

P.S.=> IF I don't learn a NEW thing everyday? It's been a wasted day (spent a lot of those in my 1/2 century++ - how about you?)... apk

Despite having a major USB defect?

[sethstorm]

Interesting to see them get an engineering award despite having a major defect (unfixed USB bandwidth issues) in their SoC.

I want VGA

[Anonymous Coward]

We've had bus constrained computers, slow I/O before, e.g. a 486 PC with only an ISA bus, IDE / ATA (originally called "AT bus") hard drives with no DMA, 2x CD-ROM, floppy..
Most SD cards are garbage too.
That's not very good but well, a constrained system can still be good at something.

I might have tried running the Ethernet at 10BaseT, just because that might be enough for random little internet things (ssh, IRC, browsing, servers) or playing back audio (stream or files).
"might", because I never quite bothered to get one. For me the lack of either VGA output or a VGA version is at odds with its low end mission. Old, really cheap, freebie monitors are VGA and I'm of those who didn't keep up with TVs when 16:9 and digital got mandatory.

There's really cheap HDMI-to-VGA hardware adapters now, though where I am the dirt cheap $2 things are to be ordered from China (such as from Shenzhen on ebay)
Would you believe my keyboard is not USB, too?

Otherwise I understand around this was built around some kind of chip meant for a TV's on-board computer or for a set top box, so HDMI-only it is (another cheap nitpick : if you need/want to pick the sound from HDMI while using a speaker-less HDMI/DVI monitor you'll need a huge ass "home cinema" AV receiver! that has some footprint. I don't like 16:9 monitors very much either as they have a large horizontal footprint)

It's all about marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

It should be more like a marketing award. There is nothing technically great about RPi with it's proprietary SOC without a datasheet.