Talks from Team Pi
I’ve been pointed at a couple of videos which might interest you: you’ll learn something new from both of these.
First up, Eben explains more about the Compute Module to our friends at RS Components:
And a little later on, Gordon, our Head of Software, gave a talk to the Prime Conference at the Royal Institution about the decisions that led us to repatriate manufacture of the Raspberry Pi to the UK:
Enjoy!
11 comments
Tom West
How come Eben always talks about “Raspberry Pi” when everyone else says “the Raspberry Pi”?
Liz Upton
“Everyone else” *I* know either calls it Raspberry Pi or The Raspberry Pi – totally interchangeable. (And I suspect we hear the phrase spoken a little more than most people do…)
Tom West
Fair enough! I will yield to your vastly greater experience. :-)
(Maybe it’s seemed that way to me because, “Raspberry Pi” sounds very awkward, so I particularly notice it.)
Jason
I thought the Raspberry Pi foundation was non profit? There’s no way the compute module development kit costs that much more to make…
Liz Upton
That’s right: we’re a not for profit. Not for profit doesn’t mean that an organisation does not intend to make any money (or else there wouldn’t be any not for profit manufacturers of anything, because none of them would be able to afford to make anything). It’s about what gets done with that money. It means the money doesn’t go into our pockets, which I am sure you will think is a good thing.
Not for profit means that all profits we make go into charitable activity: in our case, giving kids who can’t afford them Pis, training teachers, making free materials for schools to use, and giving away millions of pounds via our educational fund.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonprofit_organization <- you might also want to read this, or any of the other information online about what "not for profit" means.
Jason
That makes sense, but still this is quite disappointing. Me and some fellow students were hoping to use the compute module for a project we are entering in a competition that is being judged at the end of the year.
It sounds like by the time the compute module is released at its retail price it will be too late for us to get one and at the moment it is prohibitively expensive.
I guess I’m back to using the Pi I de-soldered all the connectors from.
Also sorry if I sounded rude yesterday, I have four Raspberry Pis and I love what you guys do. The realisation the compute module would be out of reach came as a shock after planning with it in mind since the announcement.
James Hughes
The CM is not out of reach – it will sell for around $30 depending on quantities. I’m not sure though when it goes on sale as an individual item.
The IO board is the expensive bit, because that is made in small numbers compared to the CM. If you make you own IO board, as commercial/industrial do, then you just buy lots of CM’s for you product at the CM price.
Jason
I understand that but we have a deadline and need it ASAP so we can test our board (which is partially designed at the moment). The CM is out of reach for us due to this deadline – we can’t afford to wait more than about a month. Hopefully it’s out by then.
The IO board is also something we would ideally have for a couple of reasons. The first is to test the module and rule it out if the thing doesn’t work and the second is for programming, so we can save real estate on our board.
James Hughes
I’ll see what the plan is for CM only purchases.
Charlie Callow
This is a great upgrade. Any chance of a model A+ with
this new design just without the Ethernet and two single USB ports rather two doubles?
This would be nice as it would make for a really small profile now that the overhang of components of been reduced and the composite video and 3.5mm audio have been replaced with a combined jack with a smaller height.
James Hughes
It would only have one USB port as there is only one USB port on the SoC.
Comments are closed