All you Need to Know about Raspberry Pi
In the United Kingdom, a single board computer whose size is of credit card has been developed by Raspberry Foundation. This computer has a solid state drive or inbuilt hard disk but SD card is used for storing long time and for booting. There are two versions and so Raspberry Foundation has offered all the two versions at $25 and $35. There are different models of Raspberry and model A, model B and model C. Model B is of $35 and shipping charges are extra but it has 256 MB RAM.
Hardware of Raspberry Pi
If we compare model A and model B of Raspberry Pi then, the model has no Ethernet controller, has a USB port and the price is also less compared to model B. Model B has 10/100 Ethernet controller and 2 USB ports. This computer does not come with a real clock and hence the operating system should use a network time user. Model A and model B schematics of Raspberry Foundation was released on 20th April, 2012. The size of both models A and B is 85.60 mm x 53.98 mm and weight is 45 g. The operating systems used in both models are Fedora, RISC OS, Debian GNU or Linux and Arch Linux ARM.
Technical Background of Raspberry Pi
This computer works on ARM1176JZF-S and Broadcom BCM2835 SoC. Without warranty period, it can be overlooked up to 1 GHz. First it was developed with 256 MB RAM and further development started. In recent years, model B is having 512 MB RAM with the same price and is ready to make model C expensive with more advantages in it. During these days, Raspberry has a competitor called ‘Cubieboard’. Due to more memory in the computer, the performance of the computer increases and so a huge number of customers are ready to purchase this product. People are ready to develop applications on their own and are going to use in Raspberry Pi. Folks can port Android to this computer easily and if it is hooked with TV then, children can play PC games as well. Now, Raspberry Pi has become one of the first ARM multimedia system to have open source drivers.
How to Find How Much Memory in Raspberry Pi
If a person wants to find how much memory is there in Raspberry Pi then, there are two methods that are simple. One method requires power and the other method does not need power. A person needs to write on the command prompt free –m which would list the total memory in it. It will also show how much memory is being used and how much is free. If a person has good eyesight then, he can find out these things without power. Hence, it will be easy to find whether it is 4G or 2G. 2G menas 2 Giga bits which are 256 MB RAM and 4G is 4 Giga bit that is 512 MB RAM. The total Giga bits are written on the chip.
Things Where Raspberry Pi Can Be Used
The things in which Raspberry has been used are weather station, Nixie clock, portable or in-car pc, Robert slave, rocket launcher, arcade game, bird box, home brewed beer, baby monitor, near space craft, radio, etc. There is a huge demand of Raspberry Pi in UK and it is still running at 700 per second. This computer has advantages like the programming becomes simple and children can also use it. The starting version of this device is a circuit board without packaging which is simple. The central processor available on this computer is not much faster.
Global market appearance of Rasberry Pi
This computer is rising as an embedded computer platform and in future it can add potential things like powerback and touchscreen which will make this computer a complete mobile. People who are waiting for the delivery of the 256 MB RAM version will automatically get the new version.
Raspberry Pi Foundation
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has developed this computer called Raspberry Pi. This foundation is a charitable organization and was founded and registered in the year May 2009. It is supported by Broadcom and Cambridge Computer Laboratory. The high priced model was ordered from this foundation in the year 2012 on 29th February. The intention of Raspberry Pi is to motivate the basic computer science teaching in schools. The creators have already told that millions of devices will be sold up till the end of 2012. The Raspberry Pi is assembled at Sony UK Technology’s Factory which is in South Wales.
What Does the Starter Kit of Raspberry Pi Can Do?
The starter kit of Raspberry Pi has everything. A person only needs a mouse and keyboard and all other cables are available like 4 GB SD card, Adafruit Cobbler GPIO breakout, breadboard, custom enclosure, etc. All the traditional PC’s capabilities are there inside this computer. This computer can be used for spreadsheet, games and word processing. High definition video can also be played on this computer. The model B of this computer is somewhat different and comes without a power supply, operating system, cables, SD card and keyboard. Number of Raspberry Pi board’s can be purchased as per the requirement of a person. The starter kit of Raspberry Pi includes many things like :
Pi Enclosure
HDMI high speed cable
Deluxe breadboard jumper wires
Deluxe full sized breadboard
2 port USB wall charger and USB cable
512MB Raspberry Pi
Mintronics Survival pack guts with 60+ components
Getting started with the Raspberry Pi book
Hence, it becomes easy for a customer while purchasing a starter kit.
Buying Raspberry Pi
A person can buy a number of Raspberry Pi according to his requirement as there is no restriction. 4000 Raspberry Pi’s are sold every day as manufacturer’s are manufacturing more. This type of computers are good for offices as well as schools. However, it is necessary to place an order now to get the computer fast with a new version.
