A Slice of Raspberry Pi?
This past Christmas I was lucky enough to wake up to find a Raspberry Pi under the tree. ‘Sounds delicious’, I hear you say, but this is no oven-baked treat. Rather, it’s the Raspberry Pi — a credit card sized single board computer. Not only is is compact, it’s super affordable costing just US$35!
The price point is an important factor for the Raspberry Pi as it was developed to teach basic computer science in schools and developing countries. The low barrier of entry, combined with numerous free online educational resources and community-run workshops, make the Raspberry Pi the perfect introduction to computing for the tech tycoons of tomorrow.
However, the Pi has been hugely successful outside of its intended educational purpose. Initially expected to sell around 1000 units, it has gone on to sell over 10 million. The price and flexibility of the Pi make it the perfect alternative to many expensive commercial solutions for things like interactive displays and environmental monitoring. It’s also become popular for uses such as home automation, wearables and robotics. Google has even signaled its intentions to support the Pi community with smart tools for artificial intelligence and machine learning.
If building your own robot or AI sounds a little daunting, it should also be noted that you can just use your Raspberry Pi as an ordinary computer for most common tasks. The recently released Pixel OS is a giant leap in terms of usability for the Raspberry Pi with a slick, modern interface that would be more familiar to users of Windows or OSX. It also comes preloaded with a version of Minecraft, which sure beats Minesweeper!
Despite its modest size and price the Pi manages to pack a decent amount of tech. The latest iteration the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B sports a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU running at 400MHz. (All this means is that it’s about as powerful as a decent mid-range smartphone.)
It also supports HDMI for connecting to a TV or monitor, has 4 USB 2.0 ports for plugging in peripherals like a keyboard and mouse, Bluetooth connectivity and can connect to your network via either Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi. Instead of a hard-drive it has a MicroSDHC slot for memory cards, which can be loaded with various software to run your Pi. Also you may need to buy a case for your Pi depending on how you intend to use it, with official cases costing around US$10 (which are pretty darned cute!).
The possibilities really are endless when it comes to potential uses for the Pi, it’s effectively the DIY answer to ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if…?’ Especially as the community continues to grow and support the device with all kinds of fun software and hardware modules. The Raspberry Pi provides yet another tool when exploring the potential of technology and how it can be deployed to achieve effective and exciting results.
