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Raspberry Pi announcement and likely release tomorrow

by Alistair Lowe on 28 February 2012, 11:06

Tags: Raspberry Pi Foundation

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Following on from months of build-up as the system passed through the final stages of design, testing and production, The RaspberryPi Foundation is ready to make an announcement tomorrow morning at 6am GMT, where, we expect the charity to launch its new RaspberryPi, credit card-sized, £22 computer system.

Whilst a release hasn't yet been confirmed, we know that stock of the finished product was due into the UK first thing last Monday; the Foundation's announcement stated "Ladies and gentlemen, set your alarms! The Raspberry Pi Foundation will be making a big (and very positive) announcement that just might interest you at 0600h GMT on Wednesday 29 February 2012. Come to www.raspberrypi.org to find out what's going on."

The model expected to launch initially is 'Model B', which, on top of the features included in Model A, is equipped with 256MB of RAM and 100Mbit Ethernet. The SoC powering the device is in fact a re-purposed, Broadcom VideoCore, which is targeted at devices with a focus on video recording and playback. Whilst only featuring a 700MHz ARM 11 CPU, if exploited fully, the general purpose logic previously targeted at video encode/decode can reproduce graphics on the level of, if not exceeding Apple's iPad 2 and, of course the unit remains excellent for hardware accelerated video playback.

Whilst initially the unit will be supplied with a basic Fedora Linux image, the software scene is expected to expand rapidly as the community places its hands on the board, with many more features such as QT5 support further up in the pipeline.

EDIT: The system is now available from Farnell and RS Components at £21.60.



HEXUS Forums :: 116 Comments

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will be very interesting to see what people come up with using these…
Fingers crossed I can get my hands on one to have a play about with it and see what it can do. With the video's out there showing it running as a HTPC, this would be pocket money for such a system.

Also looking forward to tinkering with one to see what you can do on it :)
Grey M@a;2329437
Fingers crossed I can get my hands on one to have a play about with it and see what it can do. With the video's out there showing it running as a HTPC, this would be pocket money for such a system.

Also looking forward to tinkering with one to see what you can do on it :)

I foresee cheap digital signage for professionals, multiscreen if someone combines a presentation application with a network/USB synch.
I really want one but I think I'll leave until the second drop before getting one. I really want one but I'd prefer it in a case ready to go and as I'm in no rush for it I'm thinking its a good idea to leave the small number of units available for individuals who can actually exploit it in this early stage. Will certainly be investing in one later on though!
Funnily enough - given the “educational” intended use, the first thought I had that this'd be great if it could be coupled with a cheap (if there is such a thing) touch screen monitor. Could be used by school kids to do a practical IT project - making a kiosk/information-terminal for their school.

Given the good graphics and video, my most obvious use would be for some form of kitchen terminal (recipes, compile shopping lists, let the kids see videos at breakfast). Again, the major bug bear is the cost of the touch screen display.

As others have said, there are a lot of potential uses for a device this competitive on the price/capabilities front.