Pete Lomas interview
There’s a really interesting interview up with Pete Lomas at New Electronics. Pete is a trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and was responsible for the final hardware version which eventually became the Raspberry Pi: a supremely hard job of knocking down cost and size, and making impossible-seeming pragmatic decisions. If you’re interested in the hardware development side of the Raspberry Pi project, you’ll enjoy this.
13 comments
psergiu
The RPi Pete is holding in the picture is powered on :-)
A gallery with all the RPi prototypes (completed or not) would be very nice.
stevepdp
Have you seen this page at the wiki? http://elinux.org/RPi_HardwareHistory
psergiu
Thanks !
Between 2006 & 2011 there weren’t any other prototypes ?
liz
No. In significant part, that’s because Eben was doing an MBA until last April, until which point the whole project was a bit dormant, having got as far as the little prototype board with the camera; and we all only started getting our heads down and working seriously on the project last May.
reiuyi
It has always caught my attention that the “about us” page doesn’t actually name all of the participants. In a lot of blog posts, important figures are named which have never been talked about before. I actively read this blog and up until now I haven’t heard of Pete Lomas yet!
Be proud and have a page on who you all are and what your role is within the foundation :D . Names mean so much more!
Very interesting read, nonetheless
liz
Pete’s always been on the About Us page!
AndrewS
Talking of which, I just noticed that Liz’s profile has changed from “full-time volunteer” to “Liz Upton is the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s only full-time worker.”
Congrats on the promotion!? :-)
liz
Only because some bits of the press were making out I was something of a part-timer on the basis of the word “volunteer”; it was starting to get annoying, so I changed it. Still a bloody volunteer, though!
AndrewS
You look like you’re still enjoying it though? :)
Was great to see you, Eben and all the gang yesterday!
reiuyi
A-ha, it is time for me to read that page again, I missed that!
JBeale
Thanks for the link- nice article, although quite brief. As far as design decisions, it doesn’t seem worth worrying too much about leaving off ethernet, when ebay lists a USB2 to 10/100 Ethernet adapter for $3 including shipping from HK to USA. Likewise, 4-port USB hubs start at $1. (Can you tell I’d really like a “Model A” RPi? :-)
psergiu
You don’t want that $1 USB hub – surely it’s USB1.1 and passive (does not accept external power) so it won’t be able to drive that USB2.0 ethernet adapter (if a Linux arm kernel driver actually exists for it)
I have a couple of those hubs and they are beyond useless. Their latest trick is to set the USB device name string as “HUB USB 2.0” but the hardware is actually USB 1.1
JBeale
Fair enough, those prices don’t suggest quality. But I do think you can get a working hub + wireless for under $10, the Model B – Model A price difference. I’m currently powering an unpowered hub using a hacked USB cable, which works fine.