Raspberry Pi Model A hits Europe with $25 price tag, expected worldwide soon

Posted on 04/02/2013 by Zach Honig

Looking for a slimmed-down Raspberry Pi with a single USB port, 256MB of RAM, no Ethernet and one-third the power consumption of a Model B board? You're probably in the market for Model A -- a $25 alternative designed for use in battery or solar-powered devices like remote sensors, WiFi repeaters, robots and so on. Europeans currently have exclusive access to the cheaper Raspberry Pi flavor, which according to an Adafruit test consumes only 100 mAh of juice (compared to about 300 mAh for the Model B, due to Ethernet power requirements). Beginning today, hobbyists can get their fix directly from RS Components and Element 14, with pricing fixed around £19, including VAT. According to the manufacturer's blog post, Model A exclusivity will be short-lived, with the device coming to the rest of the world "very soon." If you're based across the pond, however, you can hit up our source links to place your order now.

Filed under: Desktops

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Source: RS Components, Element14, Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi creator doesn’t expect a sequel in 2013

Posted on 17/01/2013 by Jon Fingas

If you were hoping for a full-fledged Raspberry Pi sequel this year, you'll have to keep waiting. Designer Eben Upton tells ZDNet that, while there should eventually be a replacement, he doesn't expect one in 2013. Both software tweaks and upgrades like the Model B are reportedly doing the job -- and it wouldn't be right to "orphan" the 700,000 existing owners with a new platform, Upton says. He isn't worried about the Cubieboard and other current rivals, as they have yet to be as fast as their raw numbers suggest. We won't hide our disappointment at missing out on a quick revamp, but we know what they say about things that aren't broken.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: ZDNet

Raspberry Pi’s $25 Model A enters production, could be in tinkerers’ projects early next year

Posted on 30/11/2012 by James Trew

Raspberry Pi's Model B computer will be no stranger to regular readers. We've seen it turn up in all sorts of projects, and generally stretched in various directions. If you were holding out for the cheaper, lower specced Model A however, your time is near. A recent post on the official Raspberry Pi site confirms that the first Model A samples are rolling off the production line. The main differences? Whereas Model B has two USB ports and 512 MB of RAM plus Ethernet, Model A sports only the one port, has half the RAM, and no Ethernet connection, making it more power economical as well as $10 cheaper. Price likely isn't the issue here, but if you were after the even more stripped back version, it's estimated they'll be ready to purchase online early next year.

Filed under: Desktops

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Source: Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi hands-on and Eben Upton interview at Maker Faire (video)

Posted on 21/05/2012 by Myriam Joire

Unless you've been hiding under a rock lately, we're pretty sure you've heard about the Raspberry Pi by now -- a $25 credit-card sized PC that brings ARM/Linux to the Arduino form factor. As a refresher, the system features a 700MHz Broadcom BCM2835 SoC with an ARM11 CPU, a Videocore 4 GPU (which handles HD H.264 video and OpenGL ES 2.0) and 256MB RAM. The board includes an SD card slot, HDMI output, composite video jack, 3.5mm audio socket, micro-USB power connector and GPIO header. Model A ($25) comes with one USB port, while Model B ($35) provides two USB ports and a 100BaseT Ethernet socket. Debian is recommended, but Raspberry Pi can run most ARM-compatible 32-bit OSes.

This past weekend at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012 we ran into Eben Upton, Executive Director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and took the opportunity to spend some quality time with a production board and to discuss this incredible PC. We touched upon the origins of the system (inspired by the BBC Micro, one of the ARM founders' projects), Moore's law, the wonders of simple computers and upcoming products / ideas -- including Adafruit's Pi Plate and Raspberry Pi's prototype camera add-on. On the subject of availability, the company expects that "there will be approximately 200,000 units in the field by the end of June". Take a look at our hands-on gallery below and our video interview after the break.

Gallery: Raspberry Pi hands-on