It’s become fairly common to see phones and computer devices designed to completely hide their inner workings from their users. What’s far less common is to see a device developed specifically to enable users to see more of its technology. That, however, is precisely the premise behind Raspberry Pi, an ultra low-cost computer designed for teaching computer programming to children.
Roughly the size of a credit card, Raspberry Pi is designed to plug into a TV or to link with a touch screen to create a low-cost tablet. The device features a 700MHz ARM11 processor along with 128MB or 256MB of SDRAM and open software including Fedora Linux, Iceweasel, KOffice and Python. Also included are composite and HDMI video output, a SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot, an optional integrated 2-port USB hub and 10/100 Ethernet controller, and USB 2.0. Perhaps best of all, however, is that it’s expected to be priced at USD 35 for a system with wifi, or USD 25 for one without. “It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video,” the UK-based project explains. “We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming.”
Once the Raspberry Pi goes into production — currently slated for January — its developers expect it to make an impact in both the developed and developing worlds. Education and tech-minded entrepreneurs: one to get involved in?
Website: www.raspberrypi.org
Contact: info@raspberrypi.org
Spotted by: Marko Balabanovic