A credit card size PC, the greatest linux OS and a great amount of developers and enthusiastics…welcome to the Ras PI Comunity.
The Raspberry Pi is the work of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a charitable organisation founded in 2009. It’s supported by the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and tech firm Broadcomm, whose system-on-a-chip powers the device.
The Raspberry PI is quite a powerful, unexpensive device that can be easily carried around as it is a credit card size. However small, the Raspberry PI is to be considered a full micro PC as it has all the power to compute as a normal desktop PC. The Raspberry PI Operating System is based on Linux, there are now many different versions or “distros”, among the many the most used is the Raspbian “wheezy”, a Debian version derived.
The Raspberry PI is now produced in UK, (Sony’s Pencoed factory in Wales), comes in two models, (A & B), but the B is the one everyone is looking for as it sports higher specs, the model A instead is intendend for countries with lower income pro capita.
The model B is in its second version and has the following features:
- SoC: (System on a Chip, Broadcom BCM2835
- CPU: 700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S core (ARM11 family)
- GPU: Broadcom VideoCore IV, OpenGL ES 2.0 (24 GFLOPS), MPEG-2 and VC-1 (with license), 1080p30 h.264/MPEG-4 AVC high-profile decoder and encoder
- Memory (SDRAM): 512 MB (shared with GPU)
- USB 2.0 ports: 1 (direct from BCM2835 chip) 2 (via the built in integrated 3-port USB hub)
- Video outputs: Composite RCA (PAL and NTSC), HDMI (rev 1.3 & 1.4), raw LCD Panels via DSI 14 HDMI resolutions from 640×350 to 1920×1200 plus various PAL and NTSC standards.
- Audio outputs: 3.5 mm jack, HDMI, and, as of revision 2 boards, I²S audio (also potentially for audio input)
- Onboard storage: SD / MMC / SDIO card slot (3,3V card power support only)
- Onboard network: 10/100 Ethernet (8P8C) USB adapter on the third port of the USB hub
- Low-level peripherals: 8 × GPIO, UART, I²C bus, SPI bus with two chip selects, I²S audio +3.3 V, +5 V, ground
- Power ratings: 300 mA (1.5 W) 700 mA (3.5 W)
- Power source: 5 volt via MicroUSB or GPIO header
- Size: 85.60 mm × 53.98 mm (3.370 in × 2.125 in)
- Weight: 45 g (1.6 oz)
- Operating systems: Debian GNU/Linux, Raspbian OS, Fedora, Arch Linux ARM, RISC OS, FreeBSD, Plan 9
The memory, (RAM), in the Raspberry PI cannot be upgraded as this is buit in on the chip. One good thing about this successful board is that it can be used also with old CRT TV’s as it has a composite input as well as the HDMI for new digital monitors / TV.
The Operating System runs directly from the SD card, so if you have different projects you can have more than one card with different OS versions. Already today there is a great amount of projects that use a raspberry PI and web sites such as the official one have a great forum for this category, also the MAG PI is a good web site to use to fetch new information on developments.
One of the most successful projects however is to turn the PI into a media center, (XBMC), this runs very good on the new Board with the 512mb of Ram and is a full DLNA streamer that can serve to stream media files across the network at home.
There is rumors that a version 3 will soon come out and will have an additional peripheral for a web cam, so stay tuned as this could happen sooner than expected.
Digital Designer, blog writer and also a tech enthusiast.
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