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The alpha boards are here!

Our alpha boards arrived from the factory earlier today. Dom has been able to boot Linux, and access the SD card and network. We’ll have some demos filmed for you by the end of the week, but in the meantime, we thought you might like a closer look at the board itself. Here’s a video of Eben talking about the board and some of the hardware on it. The background howling is Mooncake, the Raspberry Pi Cat, and the horrible grinding sounds during the closeups are signals that I need a new video camera.

The console output from Debian booting and pinging the BBC website is under the fold, if you want a closer look at what’s under the hood. (You can scroll the console window left and right.)

I’ve also got a couple of pictures here from Dom, who got snapping as soon as the box was opened this afternoon. These are nice hi-res pictures, so click through if you want all the gory detail. Thanks to Dom for all his work on getting things up and running today.

Raspberry Pi alpha board, straight out of the box. Top view.

Raspberry Pi alpha board, bottom view.

Linux version 2.6.35.7 (grayg@dc4-arm-01) (gcc version 4.5.1 (Broadcom-2708) ) #13 Wed May 25 10:21:37 BST 2011
CPU: ARMv6-compatible processor [410fb767] revision 7 (ARMv7), cr=00c5387f
CPU: VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT nonaliasing instruction cache
Machine: BCM2708
Memory policy: ECC disabled, Data cache writeback
Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 20320
Kernel command line: dma.dmachans=0xf0 bcm2708_fb.FBWIDTH=1920 bcm2708_fb.FBHEIGHT=1080 dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200 rootwait nfsroot=10.177.66.43:/home/dc4/debian_nfs/root/files ip=dhcp -init=/bin/bash
PID hash table entries: 512 (order: -1, 2048 bytes)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
Memory: 80MB = 80MB total
Memory: 75848k/75848k available, 6072k reserved, 0K highmem
Virtual kernel memory layout:
 vector : 0xffff0000 - 0xffff1000 ( 4 kB)
 fixmap : 0xfff00000 - 0xfffe0000 ( 896 kB)
 DMA : 0xff800000 - 0xffe00000 ( 6 MB)
 vmalloc : 0xc5800000 - 0xd8000000 ( 296 MB)
 lowmem : 0xc0000000 - 0xc5000000 ( 80 MB)
 pkmap : 0xbfe00000 - 0xc0000000 ( 2 MB)
 modules : 0xbf000000 - 0xbfe00000 ( 14 MB)
 .init : 0xc0008000 - 0xc0025000 ( 116 kB)
 .text : 0xc0025000 - 0xc045b000 (4312 kB)
 .data : 0xc047a000 - 0xc04a2660 ( 162 kB)
Hierarchical RCU implementation.
 RCU-based detection of stalled CPUs is disabled.
 Verbose stalled-CPUs detection is disabled.
NR_IRQS:85
timer_set_mode: unhandled mode:1
timer_set_mode: unhandled mode:3
Console: colour dummy device 80x30
Calibrating delay loop... 499.71 BogoMIPS (lpj=2498560)
pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
khelper used greatest stack depth: 7040 bytes left
NET: Registered protocol family 16
khelper used greatest stack depth: 6960 bytes left
hw perfevents: enabled with v6 PMU driver, 3 counters available
mailbox: Broadcom VideoCore Mailbox driver
bcm2708_vcio: mailbox at f800b880
bcm_power: Broadcom power driver
Serial: AMBA PL011 UART driver
dev:f1: ttyAMA0 at MMIO 0x8201000 (irq = 83) is a AMBA/PL011
console [ttyAMA0] enabled
Serial: Broadcom virtual UART driver
bcm2708_vuart: registered virtual UART @c4c69000 through MBOX f800b8a0
khelper used greatest stack depth: 6728 bytes left
bio: create slab <bio-0> at 0
SCSI subsystem initialized
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
usbcore: registered new device driver usb
Slow work thread pool: Starting up
Slow work thread pool: Ready
FS-Cache: Loaded
CacheFiles: Loaded
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 4096 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 4096 bind 4096)
TCP reno registered
UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
NET: Registered protocol family 1
RPC: Registered udp transport module.
RPC: Registered tcp transport module.
RPC: Registered tcp NFSv4.1 backchannel transport module.
bcm2708_dma: DMA manager at c5810000
: registered virtual buttonsbits @c4c7f000 via MBOX f800b8a0
input: bcm2708_vcbuttons as /devices/platform/bcm2708_vcbuttons/input/input0
: registered buttonsbits @c4c4b000 through MBOX f800b8a0
input: bcm2708_vctouch as /devices/platform/bcm2708_vctouch/input/input1
: registered ledbits @c4c48000 through MBOX f800b8a0
audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
type=2000 audit(1.040:1): initialized
squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
FS-Cache: Netfs 'nfs' registered for caching
fuse init (API version 7.14)
msgmni has been set to 148
cryptomgr_test used greatest stack depth: 6596 bytes left
alg: No test for stdrng (krng)
Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 253)
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler deadline registered
io scheduler cfq registered (default)
BCM2708FB: registering framebuffer (1920, 1080)
BCM2708FB: start = 0xc4400000
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 240x67
kgdb: Registered I/O driver kgdboc.
brd: module loaded
loop: module loaded
nbd: registered device at major 43
usbcore: registered new interface driver asix
usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_ether
usbcore: registered new interface driver net1080
usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_subset
dwc_otg: version 2.90b 6-MAY-2010 (platform bus)
Core Release: 2.80a
Setting default values for core params
Finished setting default values for core params
c5840008 -> 1
Using Buffer DMA mode
Periodic Transfer Interrupt Enhancement - disabled
Multiprocessor Interrupt Enhancement - disabled
Dedicated Tx FIFOs mode
dwc_otg bcm2708_usb: DWC OTG Controller
dwc_otg bcm2708_usb: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
dwc_otg bcm2708_usb: irq 75, io mem 0x00000000
Init: Port Power? op_state=1
Init: Power Port (0)
usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
usb usb1: Product: DWC OTG Controller
usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.35.7 dwc_otg_hcd
usb usb1: SerialNumber: bcm2708_usb
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usbcore: registered new interface driver libusual
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
cpuidle: using governor ladder
sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver
sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman
mmc0: Unknown controller version (2). You may experience problems.
mmc0: SDHCI controller on BCM2708_Arasan [platform] using platform's DMA
mmc0: BCM2708 SDHC host at 0x08300000 DMA 4 IRQ 20
usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
usbhid: USB HID core driver
TCP bic registered
Initializing XFRM netlink socket
NET: Registered protocol family 17
VFP support v0.3: implementor 41 architecture 1 part 20 variant b rev 5
registered taskstats version 1
mmc0: new SDHC card at address 1234
mmcblk0: mmc0:1234 SD08G 7.63 GiB
mmcblk0:
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using dwc_otg and address 2
usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0424, idProduct=9512
usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-1:1.0: 3 ports detected
usb 1-1.1: new high speed USB device using dwc_otg and address 3
usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0424, idProduct=ec00
usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
usb 1-1.3: new high speed USB device using dwc_otg and address 4
usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=050d, idProduct=0307
usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=2
usb 1-1.3: Product: USB 2.0 Hub [MTT]
usb 1-1.3: SerialNumber: 001
hub 1-1.3:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-1.3:1.0: 7 ports detected
usb 1-1.3.4: new high speed USB device using dwc_otg and address 5
usb 1-1.3.4: New USB device found, idVendor=13b1, idProduct=0018
usb 1-1.3.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 1-1.3.4: Product: USB 2.0 Network Adapter ver.2
usb 1-1.3.4: Manufacturer:
usb 1-1.3.4: SerialNumber: 000000
asix 1-1.3.4:1.0: eth0: register 'asix' at usb-bcm2708_usb-1.3.4, ASIX AX88772 USB 2.0 Ethernet, 00:1a:70:8f:af:da
usb 1-1.3.6: new low speed USB device using dwc_otg and address 6
eth0: link down
usb 1-1.3.6: New USB device found, idVendor=046d, idProduct=c05a
usb 1-1.3.6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
usb 1-1.3.6: Product: USB Optical Mouse
usb 1-1.3.6: Manufacturer: Logitech
input: Logitech USB Optical Mouse as /devices/platform/bcm2708_usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3.6/1-1.3.6:1.0/input/input2
generic-usb 0003:046D:C05A.0001: input: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Logitech USB Optical Mouse] on usb-bcm2708_usb-1.3.6/input0
Sending DHCP requests .
eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0xCDE1
., OK
IP-Config: Got DHCP answer from 0.0.0.0, my address is 10.177.65.50
IP-Config: Complete:
 device=eth0, addr=10.177.65.50, mask=255.255.254.0, gw=10.177.64.1,
 host=10.177.65.50, domain=cam.broadcom.com, nis-domain=(none),
 bootserver=0.0.0.0, rootserver=10.177.66.43, rootpath=
àLooking up port of RPC 100003/2 on 10.177.66.43
Looking up port of RPC 100005/1 on 10.177.66.43
VFS: Mounted root (nfs filesystem) on device 0:12.
Freeing init memory: 116K
modprobe used greatest stack depth: 4368 bytes left
INIT: àversion 2.88 bootingà
àstty used greatest stack depth: 4176 bytes left
Using makefile-style concurrent boot in runlevel S.
Starting the hotplug events dispatcher: udevd.
Synthesizing the initial hotplug events...done.
Waiting for /dev to be fully populated...done.
Activating swap...done.
Cleaning up ifupdown....
Setting up networking....
Loading kernel modules...vcos: [725]: vchiq: initialised, 251.0
modprobe used greatest stack depth: 3984 bytes left
done.
Activating lvm and md swap...done.
Checking file systems...fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
done.
Mounting local filesystems...mount: special device /dev/mmcblk0p1 does not exist
failed.
Activating swapfile swap...done.
Cleaning up temporary files....
Starting portmap daemon....
Starting NFS common utilities: statd.
Cleaning up temporary files....
Setting kernel variables ...done.
Running scripts in rcS.d/ took 14 seconds.
INIT: àEntering runlevel: 2ø
àUsing makefile-style concurrent boot in runlevel 2.
Starting portmap daemon...Already running..
Starting NFS common utilities: statd.
Starting enhanced syslogd: rsyslogd.
Starting periodic command scheduler: cron.
Starting NTP server: ntpd.
Starting OpenBSD Secure Shell server: sshd.
Starting internet superserver: xinetd.
Running scripts in rc2.d/ took 6 seconds.
à
Debian GNU/Linux squeeze/sid default-dc4 ttyAMA0

default-dc4 login: dc4
Password:

Last login: Fri Aug 5 18:11:19 UTC 2011 from dc4-arm-01.cam.broadcom.com on pts/0

Linux default-dc4 2.6.35.7 #13 Wed May 25 10:21:37 BST 2011 armv6l

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.

dc4@default-dc4:~$ ping bbc.co.uk

PING bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131) 56(84) bytes of data.

64 bytes from virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131): icmp_req=1 ttl=248 time=10.0 ms
64 bytes from virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131): icmp_req=2 ttl=248 time=0.000 ms
64 bytes from virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131): icmp_req=3 ttl=248 time=0.000 ms
64 bytes from virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131): icmp_req=4 ttl=248 time=0.000 ms
64 bytes from virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131): icmp_req=5 ttl=248 time=0.000 ms
64 bytes from virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131): icmp_req=6 ttl=248 time=0.000 ms
64 bytes from virtual-vip-231.thdo.bbc.co.uk (212.58.241.131): icmp_req=7 ttl=248 time=0.000 ms

^C

--- bbc.co.uk ping statistics ---

7 packets transmitted, 7 received, 0% packet loss, time 6050ms

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.000/1.428/10.000/3.499 ms

dc4@default-dc4:~$

327 comments

Nice.

Yeah, it’s looking pretty nice indeed.

It would be great if the device supported Wake-On-Lan standard. Would it be possible to implement sometime?

Thank you, I really appreciate your work.

It’s a power optimisation which we haven’t had a lot of call for from the community; for now, the answer is an emphatic…maybe.

I’m also interrested in Wake-On-Lan fonction. I would like to make a print and scan server than would wake on LAN, and then power on / off the printer via a relay card and a script in rc(x).d.

One more vote for Wake-On-Lan

Wow… looking good, can’t wait for the final version!

Really looking forward to see more.. and hopefully I can get my hands on one by the years end.

just out of idle curiosity what was the time from power on to login prompt?

I wasn’t there for this particular board booting, but previous ones have taken between 10 seconds and a minute. I’ll try to get some more concrete numbers for you later!

Loving the look of it, glad you decided on SD card. Will you remove the analogue video? In my experience with old laptops the image outputed was dreadful.

Analogue video is a confirmed feature. There’s a lot of old standard-def TVs out there, particularly in the developing world.

I’m in the developed world, and I only have standard-def TVs.

#firstworldproblems

Which resolution will be output on the composite? From previous experience they were never good above 640×480/512 (Amiga!)

640×512 will be the max it’ll manage without the flickeriness Amiga folk will remember (fondly?) – afraid it’s just the nature of composite out.

Thanks for the quick response! Last question (promise!) –
is there any audio on the device? I assume if so HDMI will have it but what about output for composite?

Sorry for the double post – just spotted the 3.5″ jack on the other side! :D

Will it support both NTSC and PAL?

Yes.

Really nice, I am really looking forward to getting one to try out. Alpha, Beta any version really….

Cant wait for the finished version :)

looks good – a lot more risers than I would have thought – are these JTAG like things for debug that won’t be on the final board or are they all for GPIO and I2C etc..?

I see there is a reset button, what are the other two buttons for?

I assume the total memory = 80M is just a preliminary thing until you get the real memory map worked out?

Yes, there are risers for peripherals (camera, LCD) that won’t be on the final board as people won’t be able to access them anyway (no end user access to the GPU). They are there for testing and development purposes. Some of the signals may go out to GPIO so you can attach things though, esp. camera.

The memory is shared between the GPU and the CPU so Linux won’t have access to the entire 128/256 memory map, the GPU can use quite a bit depending on what you are using it for.

But would that mean in this case 176Mb for the GPU? Can you change that dynamically?

Congratulations !

Remember: don’t play with them, but work hard and validate them quick so we can get our hands on them ^^

I’m liking the look of the rough final size there! :)
My first thought was that combining the analogue audio and video output into a single (4 pin?) 3.5mm jack might be good though, (like used on a camcorder etc.) both for squeezing the connectors in and for cable reduction.
And if you were plugging into a T.V. then you’d want to run them both to the same destination anyway! :)
Maybe save on socket costs too?
But overall, seeing it another step closer to a final project is very cool indeed! :D

Using standard sockets for composite and audio means the cables are a lot more common, and cheaper (the sockets too), so more should be able to afford them. If you want audio and video in the same cable, HDMI is the way to go if your TV supports it.

I’d have to second the call for replacing separate composite and audio with a 4-pole 3.5mm jack and then using a 4-pole to RCA & 3.5mm stereo jack splitter cable or 4-pole to 3xRCA splitter like those shipped with almost every TV and camcorder now. The Y-cables are available for cents out of China – Raspberry Pi should include one with every device.

It wouldn’t have a significant cost delta in either direction, but should help to size down the PCB further.

One final thought: I would hazard a guess that in the developing world, schools are more likely to hook up the audio to the RCA audio inputs on the TV whereas in the developed world, they are more likley to use headphones.

A quick check on the ‘bay brings up a 3.5mm jack to 3 rca cable for £1.19 posted! I suspect buying two separate cables will not save you much there. Plus one less thing for the students to lose!
I suspect a single 4 pole socket will cost less than a 3 pole and an extra video out socket, particularly once the manufacturing costs are factored in.
Also as one of the main target markets is the developing world and the analogue outputs are particularly included to allow the cheap old telly’s to be used then the HDMI solution doesn’t work here.
The 4 pole socket is used in just about every camcorder along with alot of units that output video like phones and video players so it’s not an obscure and expensive socket/cable combo any more.
A lot of these units will just be plugged into an old telly and used as a cheap gateway to the internet. One power cable, one output to the telly for vision and sound, a network connection plus your keyboard and mouse.
Keep it as simple as possible I say! :)

it’ll save a bunch when you consider there are a lot more of the separate cables than the combined cable! ebay isn’t always the cheapest! Bet there are manufacturers out there that want the cheap cables gone super cheap.

Are there any plans for the fancy models down the road to pack LVDS onboard?

LVDS looks like it’s winning the display connector war, so possibly we’ll include it in a (much) later version.

Cool. That’s a good thing, really.

[…] Raspberry Pi – the $25 computer The alpha boards are here! The final version will be smaller, credit card sized. Same ports as these boards tho. […]

whats the chance of me getting one for Christmas?

Release boards are hoped for around November time.

My birthday is early November so if it comes out before then i will call it a birthday gift. :P
I plan on buying one ASAP.

Rasperry pi is an awful name. I wish techies would consult with marketing professionals before branding smart things.

Ah well. Too late now :)

Actually, I think the name is perfect–it adds a human touch to the tech.

(My 2 cents.)

There are plenty of bad product names produced by (expensive) marketing professionals!

Look at the 2012 Olympic logo (I know, it’s a logo not a name, but.) – one of the worst I have ever seen, and it cost £600k.

One good thing about the name – if you put Raspberry Pi in to Google, you only gets hits on this product!

I think it’s a great name. Something untarnished by unbearable marketing and armies of fanboys chanting is a refreshing (and very British too!)

I won’t say that the idea of a Raspberry Pi army doesn’t have a certain appeal…but I do agree, and I’m pleased you like it!

Raspberry Pi is an excellent name. It is slightly quirky and *very* memorable. It has a hint of techy without being scary. Raspberry Pi, like raspberry pie, is also very British!

Yeah. I was all up for calling it the Isambard Cricket Hurricane Spitfire Pi, but got shouted down.

pity yorkshire pudding is already taken (i was going to say “piebald richard” but that’s also taken and partially rude

IKB would have been proud of this engineering wonder!

[…] De plus, « l’alpha board » est sortie! Là encore, BRAVO! The alpha boards are here! […]

[…] The alpha boards are here! └ Tags: alpha board, raspberrypi […]

Excellent work – watching this avidly. This is the best thing since the BBC Master if you ask me :)

Congratulations on the board, looks great, looking forward to the final release.

500 BogoMIPS though? Is the processor being underclocked just now? If so, can the clock speed be modified, say in the bios/firmware?

There’s a lot of discussion about overclocking on the forums – drop in and say hi!

It is a low power and inexpensive ARM11 core, which allows the Raspberry Pi team to achieve the $25 price point.

If you need more power, there are lots of more powerful (and more expensive) boards such as Beagleboard and Gumstix on the market.

Remember, this device is primarily aimed at teaching primary school children how to program (although I’m sure hobbyists will find plenty of uses for it too).

Is X (or other GUI) with Firefox / Chrome going to work on a 500 BogoMips CPU?

This is the Fun thing about Linux: Sure that will work!

But no guarantees if you’ll live long enough to witness it.

I had upgraded my 20Mb Linux-machine to 32Mb when 16Mb was a lot. I also had a second motherboard around. And I was having memory troubles…. So after finishing some tests, I booted my machine, with what later turned out to be “only 8Mb” (or was it 4?) Anyway, by the time I had decided that the machine had crashed with the HDD led stuk in the “lit” position, I moved my hand to the reset button. Right at that moment “X” started…..

Aren’t techies a big part of the target market for these things? If so, what’s wrong with having techies name it?

Too much ‘marketing pro’ touches and something like this looses it’s credibility.

Nice ! How much alpha boards do you have ? 10 ? 100 ?

We have 50.

Any chance of you selling/giving away some of those boards? =)

Sorry – they’re all being used for development.

Fair enough =) Just itching to get my hands on a Raspberry Pi device! =D

and once beta wil be released ? what will happen to alpha board ?

I’m not sure – I imagine that most of them will be given to the people who have very kindly given their time and expertise to help us develop the device. If we have any left over, I might look at using them as prizes or in a charitable auction, but it’s not something we’ve really discussed yet.

This really looks amazing. the size is abit bigger one than the one before but all that configurations fitted into such a small thing is still amazing.

Nice work from David and you guys. Keep up the good work.

Regards

Very big board! :)
a will be the same size as the prototype?

The final size will be somewhere between the two prototypes; the team currently hopes to make it about the size of a credit card or business card.

The first board was also a demo to show how small it could be. But that has a lot of 0201 components. They are very expensive as you need a very high-tech pick-and-place machine for assembly. My fist task was to replace every 0201 with 0402. (If you don’t know what 0201 and 0402 are: Size of SMD components) Take a 10uF capacitor. in 0603 it is ~0.20. Take 0805 and you pay ~0.02. Factor 10 down in cost.

Interesting! I read a bit more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-mount_technology#Package_sizes

0201 (0603 metric): 0.024 × 0.012 in (0.61 × 0.30 mm) Typical power rating for resistors 1/20 watt
0402 (1005 metric): 0.04 × 0.02 in (1.0 × 0.51 mm) Typical power rating for resistors 1/16 watt
0603 (1608 metric): 0.063 × 0.031 in (1.6 × 0.79 mm) Typical power rating for resistors 1/16 watt
0805 (2012 metric): 0.08 × 0.05 in (2.0 × 1.3 mm) Typical power rating for resistors 1/10 watt

I wonder how you can see whether you’re talking about inches or metrics … just learn the standard numbers, I guess.

The numbers he’s talking about are the “standard” (imperial) sizes.

I’ve never heard of those metric size designations.

Найс!!! Прикрутим в виде сервера малопосещаемого сайта!!

What do you do with the alpha-cards? Sell? You give for free the first 50 who wish?
(пщщпду translate)—
Что вы будете делать с альфа-платами? Продадите? Отдадите бесплатно первым 50 желающим?

The alpha boards are all earmarked for development, both by the Raspberry Pi team and by our partners, who are working on porting software onto the device.

I must admit, I quite like the idea of the alpha boards being given away as tester units ;)

If you give more details on which Python GUI toolkit will be included on Raspberry Pi (Tkinter? WxWidgets? Pygame?), other programmers might start porting (or creating) software for the device, even if we still don’t have a physical copy of it (yet ;-D ).

Hello Liz, I’m part of the OpenWRT community and would like to port it so our next release have support out of the box for the Rasperry Pi which I’m pretty sure will be very popular.

Do you have any plans to give some devel boards to third party open source developers?

I have been playing with a beagleboard for years but they missed a trick having no Ethernet on the original board. Very much looking forward to ordering one of these.

[…] с завода Разработчики из организации Raspberry Pi Foundation сообщили о получении с завода первой партии компьютеров, […]

This is seriously going to revolutionize Home PC growth. Eager to get my hands on one of these and see just how small I can get Linux down to and still have everything I need.

And if you’re including the SD card slot, this just became my go-to…accessory? for at work. Instead of bringing my USB drive with all my portable apps on it, I can bring this, connect it to my work monitor and BAM, home PC at work during breaks.

Hadn’t thought of that, it’s a great idea! Show it off to colleagues can help drive it’s growth

[…] is still a few steps away from that dream, but this week Raspberry Pi got one step closer with the introduction of a new alpha board that’s a fully functional computer that fits in the palm of your […]

[…] из организации Raspberry Pi Foundation сообщили о получении с завода первой партии компьютеров, […]

Congratulations! Looking really good. Can’t wait to get my hands on the final version.

Hi,

Whats the significance of the Broadcom logo and BCM9RASP01 silkscreened on the board? Is this going to become an official Broadcom dev board or something?

Looking forward to buying the final board.

Cheers,
Ed

We already have official dev boards for the particular chip used on the Raspi (although not many yet), but they are rather more sophisticated (and bigger) with camera and LCD.touchscreen etc. I’m thinking we will also be using these Raspberries for development though, they are much cheaper! And we can take them home for homework!

Broadcom are a partner to Raspberry Pi, and are providing a lot of dev support both in HW and software, since the GPU is proprietary Broadcom the Raspi would not be possible without that support. It helps that Eben, the driving force behind the Raspi, is a chief architect for the Videocore GPU, at Broadcom in Cambridge.

So will you be adding OpenGL ES or Gallium3d drivers for the GPU to Mesa?

We like the idea, but we just don’t have the resources to devote to Gallium at the moment. This may well change later, but you won’t see the drivers at launch, and you may have a bit of a wait thereafter.

Wow, this looks really great. What I also like is the fact that the whole community can follow the process of the birth of a new computer; really awesome!! This thing is going to be big!

Question: the company that manufactures these alpha boards, do they have a stock of components themselves or do you need to supply them? Just curious how this works…

We supply them the non-standard parts. They have stock of R’s and C’s etc.

[…] из организации Raspberry Pi Foundation сообщили о получении с завода первой партии компьютеров, […]

Can we get any specific information on what the GPIO output will be like, such as how many IO pins and what kind of connecter?

There is quite a lot of detail on the wiki:
http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard#Components

Provisional details are approximately 16 GPIOs at 3v3, plus I2C, I2S, SPI and possibly MIPI CSI-2 and DSI interfaces. Mostly on 1.27mm headers.

It looks very cool, BUT is very necessary to have at least 2 – 100 megabit ethernet ports. Also, d-sub video interface.
Also, if you have an audio output then you must have the microphone input.
Sorry for my English.
A remarkable development but without the second ethrnet port can not be used as a home router.

I don’t believe this is meant to be a home router. If you’re getting into that territory then I would imagine the home itself would have a router rented from the internet company or are able to purchase one (you can get them fairly cheap these days.).

You can buy a router in the UK for less than the price of a Raspi, so using it as a router isn’t the best idea. It’s really a general purpose Linux PC for $25, which people can use to learn about computers and programming. Or build in to things as a controller. Or use as a media device.

Sure, you can get cheaper routers, but can you put openbsd on them?

Controlling your bridge has its value.

I think you can with some – trying to remember the name of the project – it’s been mentioned on this forum somewhere….ah, this one…https://openwrt.org/

If you are routing less than 50mbps you should be able to use a managed switch + VLANS to this.

The raspi interface is the trunk, you have your Internet on one VLAN, your network on the other.

Can’t wait to buy one!!!!

Raspberry Pi is a mixture of fruit and mathematics

Now look at the most successful computer company (hardware) to date, no its not Tangerine Systems, nor is it Apricot, nor is it Acorn, its Apple! a fruit.

Now consider the core ethos of the foundation, the basics, computer basics, real programming of which the operation, syntax and in most part execution is based on mathematical rules and formulae, Pi is also considered to be a constant.

The name Raspberry Pi perfectly means what it intends to be…

And not forgetting that like the possibilities of the device, the number of digits in Pi is infinite!

So …”Endless Fruitiness!!”

Awesome! Can’t wait. Patiently waiting for November. Keep up the good work!

Hola, yo soy de un pais en desarrollo, de America del sur y me gustaria saber como se hara para hacer que lleguen los Pi hasta este continente, pongan un video del Pi funcionando y una foto del gato.

Hello, I am from a developing country in South America and I wonder what will be done to arrive to this continent Pi, Pi put a working video and a photo of the cat.

We’re looking at working with South American distributors for the device. If anybody else is really interested, I’ll try to get the cat to do some modelling (as opposed to the yodelling she’s been doing so far) to go with the video of the working Raspi next week!

Que bueno, en mi sector e presentado el dispositivo a muchas personas, y muchas estan deseosas de tener uno.

Good, in my area and presented the device to many people and many are eager to have one.

pregunta, que version de Ubuntu saldra con la version final del dispositivo, soy fanatico a Ubuntu y uso la ultima, se podra actulizar el dispositivo, o instalar cualquier sistema operativo basado en linux?

And another question, what version of Ubuntu will come out with the final version of the device, I am a fan of Ubuntu and use the last one, may then updated the device, or install any linux based operating system?

Because Ubuntu dropped Armv6 architecture a little while back, it wont be the latest and greatest version. If you look back through some of the posts, you should be able ti find out the version.

Or maybe a different distro will be used that does support Armv6 in their latest release.

Indeed. :-(

So Ubuntu Karmic (9.10) is the most ‘recent’ Ubuntu that supports ARMv6.

A quote from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mobile/ARMv7AndThumb#Make_gcc_default_to_ARMv7_and_Thumb2_on_the_ARM_architecture

“Summary
Lucid will drop support for older arm specification in favour of armv7 with thumb2 and softfp.

Rational
Ubuntu targetted devices for which the armv7 architecture is the lowest reasonable bound; hence taking advantage of the improved instruction set of such modern applications is essential as it will come with notable speed and size improvements.”

and

“Lucid moved to armv7 + thumb2 support.
Karmic moved to ARMv6 + VFP2-D16”

That looks like a well-considered decision, which Ubuntu/Canonical will not revert easily. So I guess no recent Ubuntu on the Raspberry Pi. :-(

[…] Para mayor información haga clic aquí […]

Ooooh! Looking good, im excited for the public release! :D

[…] Just noticed this on their blog… The alpha boards are here! Reply With Quote […]

[…] via Debian booting and pinging the BBC website, you’ll be able to do so by checking out the Raspberry Pi Blog – lots of numbers and letters that all ad up to the system working clearly. Now all […]

I second the wish to see the cat :-D Cats bring luck to about any project!

Awesome to see a Debian Squeeze booting on this! Thanks for showing us all these details, it really makes waiting a lot more comfortable!

This looks like fantastic product, can’t wait for the release, if its around the $30.00/unit I plan on buying a few right off for a few projects I can think of. These would make great basic systems for kids who want to surf the net or do homework. Plus I hope to get some people more involved in our computer users group with these. Great job and keep up the good work.

That’s the basic aim of the project! Getting people (specifically ch8ildren) more in to the technical side of the equipment they use every day.

So far the $25 cost is looking pretty feasible.

Does this mean the “buy one, donate one” idea has been dropped? That’s good if so. At $25-30 they’re cheap enough that spare ones will be bought and turned to novel uses, i.e. experimentation will be higher. Double that price and folks will still get one or two but they will end up being tied-up doing useful things and not be available; playing will be less.

Absolutely not – buy one, give one is still a core part of how we’re hoping the charity will work. But you don’t *have* to select a buy one, give one option; if you want, you can just buy one for yourself. We’re hoping that enough people will choose to give one to make a difference, but we appreciate that some people won’t be able to afford to, or won’t choose to.

Looking really good. But I would rather buy a few for my local schools then donate elswhere as our schools are loosing money to teach and this would be a big boost for our students.

Hi liz, that sounds like the best of both worlds. I’ve young relatives and friends’ children I’d be interested in buying them for, so I’d be choosing the “just for me” option but I can see others may wish to donate without individuals in mind.

I would rather pay more for the board, perhaps the price for educational purposes/less developed countries could be the bare minimum or lower, being offset by other users such as hobbyists paying £/$10 more?

We’re also working with NGOs and other bodies (charitable and otherwise) to help bring the board into both those situations without having to rely on stinging you guys for loads of cash!

will that pc support flash videos like youtube or the one which was here shown in 720p?
Please mail me :-)

Playback of H264 at 1080p30 (and some other formats) will be possible, however, Flash is a bit more complicated as Adobe would need to build an Arm variant of Flash with the appropriate acceleration features. There is a thread on Flash elsewhere in the forum.

I was wondering out of curiosity what it cost to make these alpha boards.

Alpha boards always cost more than the final device, but it’s looking good for the $25 price point for the final version of the Model A.

Looking forward to playing with one of these when we can order them.
Been playing with the original beagleboard for a long time but I think it was a big failing not to include a ethernet port on it. Hurry up pi :-)

Great work guys, tell me though. Why do you have Schrodinger’s equation on the whiteboard?

Because we were wondering if any of you would spot it! I’m going to have to get more creative with the dry markers next time…

Nice pussy too! So do I win an alpha board?

Nope! :)

You might win an injunction…!

Schrodinger’s cat would be the king of double entendre

[…] More information about the $25 Raspberry Pi together with an interview with its designer David Braben, can be found on our original post here. With more information on the new board available from the Raspberry Pi website. […]

All joking aside, I am looking forward to getting one of these machines and connecting it up to an arduino board. The cheapest rig I have managed to do that on before is a pogoplug with the default OS replaced, python scripts to talk to the arduino. Do you think there will be enough power to drive an arduino straight from the second USB (on the two USB version) or will this have to be done through an external powered hub? Perhaps this set up is more of interest to enthusiasts than the school education market.

Well, this is the use I was think about too…

That’s why I’m really curious if you could power the Pi board from batteries…

We use dev boards with a very similar processor plus LCD’s (so higher power requirements) from batteries. Not sure how long they last though. I think we use ones for model aircraft or cars. Quite beefy.

Actually there are on the market some universal-type batteries (the one with usb and many other plugs) that supply from 5 to 20V and can support a variety of watt work. I believe that w/o the high consumption of a display (for the use I have in mind) these batteries may last a long period of time. Only the usb/ethernet chip (even in idle mode) cunsums a lot of energy…

Btw, two questions:
1) What is the energy consuption of the board (both in idle and full load)? Have you ever gauged it?
2) Should the board work w/o a display connected?

Hey, i have some suggestions:

1) If you could have the same GPIO-Pin-Layout for both Models? This way everybody could create shields like for the Arduino.

2) Could you also give access to one USB-Port (via header) so someone could make (for example) an usb-hub shield with 8 usb-ports. or something similar?

3) Maybe use a Ethernet-Port with access to the PoE-Lines. This way it would be possible to create a PoE-Shield.
(http://www.te.com/catalog/pn/en/1-6605834-1#features)

And one last question: What kind of GPIOs are available? Are there suitable for an SATA-Controller? (Have more performance than a simple USB-SATA-Adapter)

Any chance of having a microphone input on the final version?

Afraid not – packaging it with microphone would push us above the price point we’re trying to hit.

without giving us any trade secrets it would be interesting to have a rough breakdown of the costs of the board. rough percentages would do. say pcb = 5%, processor = 26.745324%, usb connectors = 2%………

It’s safe to say the processor is a bit more than 26.745324%, but as with any silicon, the more you buy, the cheaper they are. The processor is one of the cheapest cores out there, and also one of the most multimedia powerful……

Ouch, a Snapdragon, Omap 4 or Tegra 2 are selling for around $10!

That is only 2,5 $ more.

Is only an ARM11 possible?

$2.50 (and I’m just using your estimate as an example – we can’t divulge parts prices other than to say that UKScone is way off ;) ) would be 10% of the price we’re selling at – and in a device where every penny counts, that’s a hell of a price bump. The plan (or at least our fervent desire) is to ship millions of these, and I don’t like the mathematics of millions of boards with an additional $2.50 cost slapped on top. When you consider the fact that our multimedia core actually outperforms the chips you mention, I think we can be confident that we’ve made right choice of hardware.

Do you plan on releasing it with a bootloader image and Ubuntu installed or no bootloader?

I think y’all forgot to do one thing:
sudo apt-get install firefox vlc lxde-core xorg
=D
Congrats!!! Can’t wait to get one!

I would like a simple PC design like this:
http://www.webbomb.de/shop/images/product_images/info_images/1875_0.jpg

That is awesome! This computer would be perfect for a boxee box.

i’m afraid there’s still no Boxee ARM distro

Hey Carlos,

I know nothing about this stuff really, but seeing as Boxee boxes have ARM processors (http://blog.boxee.tv/2010/01/07/boxee-box-internals-revealed-nvidia-tegra-2-ftw/), would this not mean that Boxee should be pretty easily compiled for the ARM architecture?

Kevin

Unfortunately Boxee Boxes didn’t end up running with the Tegra 2 SoC (that may have been an early blog post), they are using Intel Atom tech. Obviously early on it was planned that the Boxee’s would have the Tegra’s and therefore there was apparently an early ARM based build of the software, but I don’t think it was ever publicly released. : (

Intel has since dropped out of this market however, so Boxee may have to look into future ARM support. Yay!

[…] Raspberry Pi announced they have an alpha version of the computer running. It’s physically larger than their eventual goal, but that’s normal at this stage to […]

А якщо до них GPS прикрутити, та модем GSM, наскільки зміниться вартість? Я б тоді такий продукт продава на Україні :-)

If the GPS and GSM modules are connected, how the cost will be changed? I would like to sell this product in Ukraine

Hey!
If you can run linux onto it then can you load Labview run time and deploy executable onto it? It would be amazing to have it running a DAQ card from the USB port…
AF

Just look on it as a Linux PC, but really tiny and small and cheap. Only thing to remember is that it is Arm based, so you will need apps compiled for the Arm platform. I’m not familiar with Labview, but a quick glance at their website makes me think they don’t (yet) have an Arm Linux variant.

It would be great if you would consider the value of audio preservation of languages as well the distribution of audio files in local languages would also be of great value. On that note having the capability of audio in even if some form of detection were built into the OS so that a microphone can be used.

We’re actually talking to a potential partner about getting learning materials for foreign languages on the device; a microphone can be plugged into the Raspi, so there are no problems in that direction.

I want one!

[…] The tiny system runs Linux on an ARM processor with 80MB of memory. For a closer look at the ingredients, check out a sample of the console output on the Foundation’s blog. […]

How? How do you make the price of 25 dollars? The wholesale price on the same processor $ 15!

Easy: elves.

And Pictsies. Don’t forget the pictsies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictsies

not forgetting the oompa loompas

5 finger discount.

Liz pretended to be a screech owl and Eben “liberated” 3 lorry loads when the security guards went to see what was going on.

just joking.

really they fixed the UK lottery and used their ill gotten gains to buy in bulk.

not really.

Eben used his employee discount to buy the chips then Liz returned then for a full price cash refund. do that a few times and they become free :)

Easy: shotguns.

You guys are definitely going to sell millions of these things.
If Ubuntu no longer supports the architecture, that’s not a big worry, as odds are there will be gentoo running on it in ten minutes, and the OpenWRT guys will probably have a package done in a week.

Hell, I’ll probably buy one for each distribution, and test them out against each other :)
Expect a massive amount of sales when you start shipping, and projects start hitting hackaday.

Sweet !
Just my 2 eurocent … as this device is primarily targeted at the developing world, I would consider:
+ a PS/2 interface for Keyboard & Mouse
(Millions of these older devices are being dumped by the developed(?) world, every year !)
+ a Micro-USB interface instead of a classic Power Connector for AC/DC-adapters
cfr.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_External_Power_Supply
These will quickly become ubiquitous & cheap !

PS/2 to USB adapters are getting dirt cheap, under a dollar in bulk, I don’t think that’s important anymore. Resellers of junked equipment should just sell them with the adapters.

Micro-USB power & I/O port would be awesome, but might be impractical at such a late stage. I think it would make sense, because 7.5V transformer plugs are much less common than 5V, 9V, and 12V, but if it’s broadly compatible with any reasonable voltage and a standard 5.5×2.5 connector, I think it’ll be plenty worthwhile as-is.

Is there a known start date of sale.
Because I want to let to buy this machine as soon as possible.

Not yet – it depends how fast we can get the development and parts negotiation done, but at the moment we’re on track for a Nov/Dec release. If you sign up to the mailing list at the front page (top right), you’ll be the first to know!

When u say $25 would that be 17.27€ or 25€ for europeans. As some companies tend to do the second option.

It’ll be the former – we’re not interested in fleecing you!

I didnt find the information sorry for asking if it was posted again. I guess the final version will have a step-down switcher?

If so, any info what would be the min – max supply voltage of raspberry pi?

Congratulations on the alpha board :) I can see great possibilities with this board in diy projects (especially if coupled with an Arduino).

Will the release version have a e-sata/usb ports instead of simple USB ? It will be great to create mini samba servers….

Unfortunatley not. The CPU module provides HDMI and USB directly. eSATA would require additional components, pushing the price beyond the $25 target.

Would like to see a much smaller one. O.k., its not the final version, but please consider to use the smaller interface-versions such as micro-usb, micro-hdmi and micro-sd-card. Formfactor is one of the main-reasons to decide for this kind of stuff.
Thanks.

Form factor’s cool and all, but the main market for the boards is schools and the developing world, so we need to look to what sort of connectors are cheap and readily available. I don’t know if you watched the video all the way through, but the final board will be much smaller than the one you see here, which is for development (bigger=less fiddly). It’ll be about the size of a business card (this is as small as we can get it and still have all the ports fit around the edges), and the depth of two USB ports.

[…] L’engin pourra en plus devenir un PC d’appoint pour surfer de n’importe où. Plus d’infos sur le site de la fondation. ← Le Samsung NC215S à panneau solaire en précommande aux […]

Does the PI support flash video then for youtube and Iplayer etc?

Yes, it does. Although I (speaking with my personal hat on, not my RP trilby) really wish that the rollout of HTML5 for applications like those you mention would get a move on. I’m not a fan of Flash at all!

I agree Flash has its flaws, so the PI should be capable of smooth full screen “online” video playback ?

Any ideas if it will ship with Ubuntu or Fedora ?

I read you may ship at first without a case ?

Absolutely, yes. Flash doesn’t present a problem for video playback. We’ll be shipping with Ubuntu, and initially without a case. All these questions (and more) are discussed at much more length in our forums – do drop in and say hi!

Any clues on the size and layout of the board, hole locations, USB Header location, etc??? I would love to model up and 3D print an enclosure even if it is just an alpha. Also how much power does this version consume and the goal for the released version… just thinking about the thermal dissipation of the electronics inside of an enclosure.

Since the alpha won’t make to to end users, and the final pinouts are still in flux, might not be worth doing anything yet…although Liz might be interested!

As to heat dissipation, the SoC can be used in mobile phones, and runs cool, so doesn’t need any specific measures.

Any chance of doing a production run of the larger alpha boards? More interested in output options than in speed.

Great product I can not wait to by this and not just one.
What is the power consumption ?

In answer to both previous posts, see this thread in Forum about power consumption

http://www.raspberrypi.org/?page_id=43&mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=180.0#postid-2269

Thanx jamesh! The numbers are really awesome!

Thanks it looks promising.
I’m not interested in graphics and I will need to be under 1W with some CPU load so maybe reducing the frequency will help even 200MHz will probably be fine.
Are you using DC-DC converters or linear and what is the board using guessing 3.3V and 1.8V for the RAM.
I hope soon all spec for the final version will be available.
I guess you will also have a beta before mass production.
Still great product really close to what I need.

Not sure there will be a beta – it may not be necessary.

Pretty sure you will be able to get in under 1W, but I’m not the HW expert! You can turn the VideoCore frequency down to save power as well as the Arm, but its power management is pretty good anyway. At minimum you could just use the VC to drive the display, but if don’t have one of those, you may even be able to turn that right down too, leaving you with the Arm11 using most of the power.

Does it use coreboot?

No. As it’s an ARM platform, we do a bare metal boot managed by the GPU core. Should be possible to add a bootloader in place of the current kernel.img though.

If possible, all the physical I/O ports should be on one edge of the board… that would be awesome.

Yeah I have to second that, or on two ends. And it stands I see an octopus of cables in all directions. Looking at the photo, here is how I see the best form factor to make this better.

1. The USB and Network connections on one end.

2. Audio, composite video and power on the other opposite end. Combine stereo audio and composite into one connector as people have mentioned above.

3. All the switches SW1, SW2, SW3, in one place, all inline, so the case design is easy to implement with some inexpensive plastic pushdown tabs.

4. If there is a “power on” Surface mount LED somewhere, please also try to put it near the switches. All controls and status in one place is always a good thing.

The orientation of the connectors as it stands now is pretty messy, and lends itself to messy cable implementations and ugly cases.

Otherwise a fine job, this will be huge, especially if you can make it smaller. ;-)

Guys, I’m pretty sure they’ll try what you’re asking.

This version was a: “get it done fast so that we can verify the schematics” version. It is bigger than the intended one and it has a 6-layer PCB instead of a 4-layer one. And it has all the connectors placed where ever the routing was easiest.

So now the software guys are doing their software thingies with the alpha boards, the hardware guys can get going on making the board smaller and working on the connectors and the layout.

That said… I imagine that it’s quite possible that there simply isn’t enough “side of the board” to put all the connectors on. Meaning that some will have to go somewhere in the middle…..

Also, one other idea to consider.

If you can design it so that the power leads can have a 3 or 4 pin header on the bottom side (or top side) of the board, then this lends itself to creating a wall plug type case.

A second, power supply daughter board could be added, with 240VAC/120VAC to DC power supply, and the whole assembly then goes into a wall plug case with the appropriate country specific plug adapter.

I can answer that last question for you.

Adding an high voltage AC -> DC converter will push the price point beyond the target $25, so this will not be possible.

I personally would be interested in running this from a 5V supply: A normal USB port. Why is the input 6-23V?

the reason the power supply is at 6-23 volts is this is a standalone computer with 5 volt usb out. this is not a usb powered device but a device that has to power usb devices and have enough juice on top to run other peripherals and the cpu/gpu.

6 volts is a minimum and probably will cause the board to be unstable at real workloads. the real minimum is around 7-9 volts for these types of devices. the actual power requirement is dependant on what is plugged in the ports of the device, what the cpu/gpu/ethernet/usb portions are doing and how much amperage the wal wart supplies at that voltage.

“standalone computer with 5 volt usb out. this is not a usb powered device but a device that has to power usb devices and have enough juice on top to run other peripherals and the cpu/gpu”

Isn’t that also apply to Beagleboard/Pandaboard?
But still those board using 5V power.

Nevermind. After going through the net searching more info about those 2 boards power bla bla bla, I think I agree with you guy about min 7V power for Raspi.

Sorry if I’m posting too much, but I’ve done a lot of low power/small sized projects like this (though not as small). And I thought of something to consider for power draw.

Thanks to the close up photo, It looks like you have 3 LED’s on the board.

D3, D4 at opposite corners.
2 LED’s in the RJ45 connector.

For a project where this board might be solar powered and remote, the current draw from those LED’s might be significant, especially at higher latitudes in the winter. If they draw 10 milliamps each, the the power they use is significant.

Power = E*I or 12 volts x .040 = 0.48 watts

Even if they draw only 5 mils, the power is still significant.

One trick we did is to provide jumpers (or simple wire bridges) that can be pulled/snipped so the the LED’s can be disabled and aren’t drawing current. After all, once you setup and deploy these remotely inside some weatherproof case, who’s going to look at the LED’s anyway? Caribou? Tree huggers?

Also regarding remote deployment, what sort of temperature range will these tolerate? I can see so remote monitoring applications where the ambient temp gets below freezing. Some electronics can’t handle that and putting in a heater defeats the low power purpose.

Thanks for your consideration on my three posts above.

Thanks for the suggestions. The alpha board port layout is not representative of what we’ll have in the final device.

On the LED power consumption front, we are not expecting people to passive drop from 12V, so the power consumption is likely to be negligible compared to the consumption of the AP and the USB/Ethernet bridge.

Eben

I concur with Anthony on being able to disable LEDs on the production units. In the same way that RaspberryPi.org is trying to shave pennies off the production cost, some of us are trying to shave milliwatts off the power costs (0.48 watts, of course, is 480 milliwatts, and is thus non-trivial).

Although you’re not expecting a passive power drop from 12V (meaning that an LED dissipation of 0.48 watts is much too high an estimate), the fact remains that ANY power dissipation that returns no benefit is clearly a waste of power. In a battery-backed environment, this can significantly impact the operating time of a system, especially relative to various power-saving modes. LEDs can be very important for simplifying end-user operation and troubleshooting, but there needs to be a way to disable them.

To keep the production costs down, LED enablement/disablement jumpers (for example, Berg connectors) can simply be omitted for whichever is your most price-sensitive market. If LEDs “enabled” is most price-sensitive, then omitting jumpers would enable the LEDs. If LEDs “disabled” is most price-sensitive, then omitting jumpers would disable the LEDs.

Personally, I rather like the approach Anthony recounted, where a jumper/wire bridge can be snipped to (quasi-permanently) DISABLE LEDs, further saving the cost of Berg-style connectors. The most likely scenario is that these devices would need to have the LEDs either enabled or disabled according to a specific deployment scenario, but will not need to revert back and forth. In the big picture, which one of these needs for enabling/disabling LEDs will ultimately prove to be greater is probably unknowable. Personally, I’d prefer to see the enabling/disabling of LEDs simply be a software configuration option (perhaps even selectable on a per-LED basis), thereby obviating the need for hardware-based enablement/disablement. If the underlying bits representing the LED-indicated values are also software-accessible, then end-user operation and troubleshooting could be facilitated by displaying emulated LEDs on whatever video display is connected (such software-based efforts could be postponed to future releases without changing production hardware configurations).

In our scenario, our firm is doing pro bono engineering and integration work for an emergency network (for a not-for-profit group). Devices like the Raspberry Pi would be deployed at the lowest practical cost to potentially millions of families as embedded components in battery-backed, dual-use emergency communications devices (regular use assures end users the devices are working). Since the Raspberry Pi, like many other consumer devices, has no ECC-protection on its memory, I’m personally very happy to see that it does at least have a watchdog timer, so it could be forced to reboot itself if it hangs. In our intended application, the device needs to be cheap, miserly with respect to power, AND RELIABLE.

Dave Duchesneau
(CTO of an engineering firm)

P.S.#1 I very much like the Raspberry Pi’s wide unregulated voltage input range, although the specified range seems to vary with the posting. Noting that 6V may be unstable with some USB loads, I would personally assume a 7V minimum so that a 9V battery (or 6 AA @ 1.5V) can provide stable operation down to a nearly complete discharge. At the other extreme, a maximum voltage higher than 15V would be good, since many 12V vehicle systems can exceed that. If it turns out the upper end is really 20V (or 23V as some postings suggest), then all the better. As an earlier poster pointed out, 19V power adapters are very common. Also, it would seem straightforward to parallel the input power jack with the two unused pairs of the ethernet jack, which would thus facilitate a passive power-over-ethernet (POE) opportunity using exactly the same voltage range (with a possible drop across a diode, if one is added). Passive POE would not be IEEE 802.3af compliant, of course (which would require 48V and active electronics), but it would be compatible with a wide variety of cheap, commercially available POE injectors. A number of other embedded devices also use this technique. The point is that the incremental cost of passive POE would be approximately zero, but the increase in flexibility would be large.

P.S. #2. We’re looking forward to using the Model B board, and are also very interested in a 512 MB derivative.

P.S. #3. It would be trivially easy to use the ethernet port to couple a Raspberry Pi to a low-power mesh device such as those available at open-mesh.com. Powerwise, the mesh node would be the tail wagging the dog, even though it consumes relatively little power. In particular, I’m thinking of the OMP1, which is under $60, or under $50 each for 100 of them (http://www.open-mesh.com/index.php/professional/professional-mini-router-us-plugs.html). The OMP1 operates in about the same voltage range (6-18V) as a Raspi, and, despite its rather small size (3.75″ x 2.75″ x 1″), is more powerful than the average access point (100 mW). This type of configuration would not make a lot of sense for a simple client machine that needs to connect to some OTHER access point via WiFi, but it makes plenty of sense if the Raspberry Pi node needs to function in a mesh environment where only a few nodes are close enough to the backhaul gateway to actually connect (typically, a separate OM1P would be hardwired to the backhaul gateway). Each Raspberry Pi mesh node would serve a repeater function, so as long as they can communicate with each other (each can see at least one other node, and that node can see another node, etc.), and at least one of them can see the gateway node, then all nodes will have access. The network configuration aspect is a no-brainer, with a free web portal that supports the various types of Open-Mesh nodes (rather than physically configuring individual nodes, you add them individually to a network, where you can subsequently deal with a whole network of them, all at once).

P.S. #4. If you want to go crazy, and you know how to do Linux clustering (or perhaps CARP-style load-balancing and fail-over), you could easily toss four or five Raspis on the switch ports of an Open-Mesh MR500 mesh node (http://www.open-mesh.com/index.php/mr500-mesh-router.html), in which case each such mesh node would actually become a sort of micro-cluster. The MR500 has already has separate CPUs for each of its two MIMO radios, which allows it to deliver fast backhaul to the gateway, in addition to a local access point with dual SSIDs. One of the advantages of this configuration is that clients of the access point can be locally served by whatever services the micro-cluster can supply. Of course, this configuration is especially easy if the micro-cluster only contains a single Raspi (i.e., it’s not really a cluster). At $99 each($85 qty 100), the MR500 is a bit more spendy than the OM1P, but also serves a slightly different purpose. As usual, YMMV.

P.S. #5. Neither I nor my company is affiliated with Open-Mesh.com, except as a customer.

— Dave

I appreciate the fast response, still being able to cut a trace for an “always on” power led would be handy if you can bring it tot eh surface of the board and put pads either side of the cut position.

Any idea on the temperature range?

We’ve been discussing a lot of the points you raise on the forums – if you head on over you’ll find answers there. Do note that these boards are just for development; the final board will look very different (and smaller) – there are also a number of features on the alpha boards which are specifically for our developers’ use, and which won’t make it onto the final release.

I’d expect us to work fine down to at least -20 degrees C, subject to concerns about condensation.

Thanks. I have a global climate monitoring project that could benefit from these, so very keen to see the final outcome.

I am wondering if something like this could be used for build a beowulf system.

Lots of talk about the potential for networking a bunch of Raspis together in the forums – come over and have a chat!

I’d love to get my hands on a board like this.. Analog/HDMI/DVI video.. doesn’t matter.
It’d be great if I can hook up the USB to a USB hub :P

What’s the estimated release date for this? I’d love to grab one when it comes out just to play with it :)

We’re looking at a Nov/Dec 2011 release at the moment.

Read the FAQ.. it does everything I need it to do :)

Can’t wait for it :D Subscribed to get updates :)

One last thing liz.. any estimates on prices/range of prices for different models or is that still not yet thought of?

The Model A will be $25, the Model B $35.

Hi, I just want to say thank you for working on this wonderful projects. I’m working on POS and some robotic projects and this device is sweeter than any other fruit-named gadgets available out there :) Is there any specific policy or license for industrial / commercial use, and on what license the board design are released?

Congratulations …. many congratulations !!
When I was born, postwar computers were gigantic, extremely hot and barely able to do the job of a Sinclair 81.
Now, what I have seen on video is transforming my brand new laptop in an antic monster ;-))
Using Debian as an Operating System is a very good idea.
No need if gigabytes of RAM, the swap partition in the SD card will do its job perfectly.
Everything on a small square with a cost of $ 35 for the big one, incredible !
Kind regards.

how can i buy~

Please read http://www.raspberrypi.org/?page_id=43&mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=67

And also the FAQ’s. All the information is in there.

[…] Fonte Tweetar […]

Raspberry Pi is an intriguing development. I am doing some limited research at CSC into The Internet of Things, and am wondering about the potential here, perhaps in conjunction with Pachube.com. I also mess around with Arduino at home. I cannot wait to get a Raspberry Pi. (btw – love the name. Did you know that Pi-Calculus is an important development in compsci?) Howard Smith, CSC, hsmith23@csc.com

A bunch of us are attached (in various ways) to the University of Cambridge; Robin Milner, who was one of the people who developed pi-calculus, was an academic (and PhD supervisor of some of my friends) at the University Computer Lab, where we have offices at the moment. The name wasn’t actually chosen with reference to pi-calculus, but it’s another nice little connection!

Is that a video RCA that I’m seeing here? while I do agree with the need of an analog video output, please please please change it to s-video! Unless you are aiming for the worst picture quality then I would advise you to use an RF connector.

Seriously though s-video really offers a better picture while still analog and compatible with all TV in the world. And converters to RCA cost $1.

And if it wasn’t marketed worldwide I would have asked you to go scart.

There’s HDMI too, if you’re after better quality output. The analogue video is important for one of our major markets: it’s the cheapest way of getting display technology to a lot of people in the developing world, which is what we’re trying to do with the device.

s-video is the separation of chrominance and luminance on two separate channels, while on the composite (RCA) the signals are all carried in a single cable. This simple separation eliminates the color overlaps, the infamous “dot crawl”. The signals are identical which makes the svideo-to-composite adapter as cheap as a Y connector.

I do agree on the need of having analog output, however there is virtually no benefits of having composite instead of s-video. It’s as cheap, of better quality, and can be adapted with a minimum hassle if the screen allows for composite only.

Sadly, the chip we’re using doesn’t support s-video.

Are the push buttons really necessary? It seems to me they just use valuable board space. The gpio are already broken out, so if you really needed a push button you could just solder wires to one.

Those button switches won’t appear on the final board that we’ll be retailing. They’re there for our developers to use (along with a few other features you’ll see in the pictures) – that’s why we have to produce an alpha before our final version.

Would the GPIO be like what Arduino has … (or any other embedded uProc)

Program pin as input or output and similar current and voltage specs ?

If not I suppose Arduino + Raspberry Pi would still be a very powerful combination …

Also do cheap Wifi usb adapters work with ARM Linux ? (If so I can’t see why anyone would use SPI 802.11 with Arduino over Raspberry Pi + cheap usb wifi given cost … any thoughts on this …)

From what I understand (which may well be wrong) they operate on 3v and can be programmed to be input or output, but you better be careful to regulate since using a 5v input could blow the board. Seems to me they should be programmable from C through #include . I have not been able to try this since I do not have any ARM devices with GPIO at the moment. I read elsewhere that cheap USB wifi should work. I did once try to get one working with a sheevaplug (ARM based), to no avail but I felt like I could have got it working if I had been prepared to spend more time on it.

For some reason that #include was editted by wordpress — it should have said “linux/gpio.h” as referenced here http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/gpio.txt

Will it be possible to order an alpha board?

Afraid not – they’re strictly for our developers to use.

ok. so how do we become developers? :)

Wait until November, and give us your money :)

LOL!

Apply for a job at Raspberry Pi (or Broadcom), in Cambridge, UK, pass a 5 hour interview/interrogation/grilling, wait for HR to catch up with the application, then come in to work!!! ;-)

Actually, thinking about it, it may be easier to wait till November!! Probably cheaper as well!! And less stressful. But you do get free sodas/fizzy pop.

Does the chip support analogue vga video output? Is it ever possible to add it to the board as number of pins? There are many old cheap video monitors that does not have anything but d-sub input. It’s sad to loose the possibility of using it with Raspberry.

We’re looking into the possibility of adding either an external VGA adapter (smart cable), or at least bodging the composite output to give us monochrome VGA support.

Answer means that there’s no native vga output in the Broadcom chip?

Correct. HDMI and composite built in.

It’s sad. Well.. the one way in this case is to buy hdmi to vga converter. It costs about $30 (dealextreme.com).

Congrats on the boards! FWIW, I’m seeing a lot of content on elinux.org about the Raspberry Pi. Not sure if you’re all responsible for it, but it’s nice to see, as there’s already content in multiple languages.

If there’s anything I can do to help regarding elinux.org, please let me know in #elinux. I’m the editor/admin.

Thanks
Bill (wmat)

[…] Fuente Oficial Tags: RaspBerry Pi […]

Looks amazing, I just can’t wait to buy it !

[…] Pi proress By Darcy, on August 24th, 2011 Raspberry Pi which is a microcontroller for robotics and stuff apparently is getting closer to […]

Simply awesome! Can’t wait to buy it! :D :D

It looks great!

I can not wait to see if XBMC will run on it.
Can you perhaps see how it performs, and report back?

Product interess me a lot.
I hope a stable version asap.

Nice to have 1: 2 more usb connectors.
Nice to have 2: a stable software enviroinment based on Debian.

You’ll have #2 in the final version; size prevents us adding more USB slots, but a hub is supported.

it have Sound output ?. The video output is supports emulators
mame , snes and divx.

Thanks

It does – both HDMI and analogue.

I can’t wait to get mine. I plan to put a custom linux disto (probably Chromium) on it and mount it on the back of my monitor. It’ll be like having an all in one computer.

It looks like these could be used in a cluster very easily. You should make a post about the kind of performance 5 or 6 of these chained together could produce.

[…] in una sua forma opportunamente ridotta con kernel 2.6.35.7. Al momento la scheda sembra funzionare correttamente tanto da effettuare il boot del sistema, eseguire il login per poi portare a termine un ping. Tutte […]

[…] It looks like the tiny, full-fledged computer might actually be produced with the announcement of alpha boards in the Raspberry Pi […]

Does the ARM 11 proc have inbuilt FPU?

This particular one does, yes.

I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it! I want it!

Okay, great, now finish testing so I can go buy one :-)

Have you tested the DSL (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org) distribution in the mother?

No, just Debian (which I think is the base for DSL anyway?) and Ubuntu. Not sure there is an Arm version of DSL yet.

There is ARM11 devices, running Ubuntu.
See this:
http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/ARM11-MIDs-run-Ubuntu/

Depends which version of Ubuntu – I believe Arm11 has been dropped in the latest versions.

I was impressed by the original device. I basically wanted one then. Now about the evolving device. when will it be available here? (US)

I should also mention that I run Slackware Linux here, and have wanted to create my own ARM based port for Slackware, even though one does.

[…] It looks like the tiny, full-fledged computer might actually be produced with the announcement of alpha boards in the Raspberry Pi […]

Seriously looking forward to buying at least two of these for tinkering in the physics lab.

should have 2 SD cards, one for system and one for hot storage.. this will help in the event of naughty software burning up the flash and not the entire board.

Cost factor I’m afraid. We do bring out a second SD interface to headers so there’s potential for an add-on board.

just an idea – would it be possible to power the device using power over ethernet?

This could save a lot of wiring in the classroom.

It’s worth having a look at the faq for more on this.

The Raspberry Pi Board will replace my IGEL Thin Clients which I use as small Home Server and Storage System!
Your Raspberry Board is pretty cool and freaky, so much ideas to use it :D Which Operating System have you already tested on it? Some kind of Linux Distributions, i think, but anything else, too? Some BSDs, Android (okay, it’s a linux, too)

Can I compare the Arm11 700MHz CPU with something else? Like a Celeron 700MHz or VIA Eden e.g (i know these are x86 CPUs)

Best regards from Germany and go forward! You are doing a great job! Respect!!

Marcus

See the FAQ for more about what will run on the Raspi.

I think you could probably compare the ARM11 to a Pentium 3 at 250MHz.

Any chance to cheap version with GSM module?

Eagerly watching this project, for my project…

Some comments…

Please, *buntu based only. Fedora/CentOS/RedHat and its dependency nightmare, along with the much more mature software availability for *buntu is a must for this device. Your aiming for ease of use, and apt-get install is far more successful than yum install which will not resolve dependcies, along with PPA’s for software.

My own personal Linux distro is *buntu dervied due to this vast existing software selection.

Aslo in looking at the alpha boards and the wiki, a question… has the audio in either mic or line level been dropped? I see mention of 1/8″ jack for what I am guessing matches the audio out for speakers?

While it would be a plus for audio mic or line in, as long as the USB and the distro supports:

1) Floating point for media encoders ie: LAME, ogg, FLAC, etc..

Media encoders such as LAME etc. REQUIRE FLOATING POINT support.

2) USB audio device support for input

I had been in contact from the BBC release, and advised of a Mic IN, but it seems this has been dropped?

Again, VERY EAGERLY LOOKING FOR BOARDS to work with, Model B or better, versions.

Thanks!

Mic in is too expensive to allow us to hit our price point, but you can always attach a supported USB mic. (See the FAQ.)

This is so awesome.

I agree about the SD cards… microSD is very annoying, in my opinion. It reminds me of the “Not Fish.. Snake scale…” microscope scene out of BLADE RUNNER.

[…] saber um pouco mais, veja as mensagens do boot do Debian na versão corrente do equipamento.(via […]

Surely one major use of this device could also be to support video calling, ie skype, google talk etc. The addition of the mic port cost vs market appeal must surely be worth considering. Considering the potential cost this must hold a massive appeal to that market. Well done to the developers. Will definitely get as soon as released.

Low cost is always going to be of paramount importance to us – our main aim is to get as many of these into the hands of schoolkids, people in the developing world and others who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access computers. Even pennies on a single unit would end up costing us $$$$ over the sort of production runs we’re looking at. The good news is that you can attach any compatible USB mic, so you can still use it for all the applications you mention.

This machine is made for developing countries.
You makes it with only ONE USB port..
They kids in Afrika will need to BUY a USB HUB, to be able to connect both a Mouse & Keyboard.
A USB-hub will cost THEM around $10 or more…
You can put more USB-ports on the board, for less than $2.

There are two on the Model B, which is the model we intend to be sending to developing countries. In a later phase of the project, we’ll be raising funds to send them for free.

I am excited indeed! However – for next revision of board I suggest to think about cabling. Ideally all the connectors shall be on one side of the board, led’s and buttons – on the other. Think how you will put this in the box and how users will install device, do cabling. At the moment board looks more like caseless processor evaluation kit for use on ESD-proof table. PulseJack for low cost device? Really? :) I doubt developing countries will use shielded Ethernet cables. Why don’t use unshielded connector with separate trafo? This can save for switching power supply, preferably with upto 30VDC input (24VDC + margin). Polarity and overvoltage (using dynistor) protection with dumb fuse can be useful too – if you think users will source powersupplies locally.

Does the micro SD hold the OS that gets booted upon starting, or is the OS resident on some persistent memory on the board?

The OS is on the SD card (along with some other software we’re planning to surprise you with) – there’s no memory on the board itself. Oh – and it’s a regular SD card, not a micro one – they’re more robust (important for our target audience of kids) and much less easy to lose!

This project is absolutely amazing.. I can’t wait for it’s release.. Congrats on success to this point.. Many similar projects on these lines have never made it to frisson..

Have you lined up any distributors yet.. I am in Canada and we get left behind sometimes.. :(

You aren’t the first Canadian visitor to this site who’s told me that! We’re looking into distributors, and expect to have a network set up some time next year.

Sweet… I like many can’t wait to get my hands on one..

[…] Компютър с цена само $25 осигурява пълноценна Quake 3 игра http://www.raspberrypi.org/?p=78 – Raspberry Pi, An ARM Linux box for $25, The alpha boards are here! […]

You are doing a great job guys, I can´t wait till I get one and start playing with it. I´m from Argentina and I think it will be very succesull here. Keep going and congratulations!

I can’t see this machine useful, with only 128 or 256 Mbyte RAM. Unless you run in TEXT MODE only…
With RAM beeing so cheap nowdays, it should have 2 Gbyte RAM.
That way it will work fine with everything.
You can’t even install Ubuntu 10 or later, if you have less than 384 Mbyte RAM.
It works fine with 1 Gbytr RAM. And flyes with 2 Gbyte RAM.

Thousands would disagree with you – come and talk about it in the forums!

Well, I’ve run LXDE on it and it works OK.

DDRx RAM is cheap and available in large capacities, PoP RAM isn’t – not available above 256MB. As PoP RAM becomes available in larger sizes, who knows.

Personally, I often ask a Q: Why would anyone want to put Ubuntu on something like this?

More critically, why would anyone want to install Ubuntu on anything? (I find even the ‘lite’ binary versions I’ve installed rather bloated, both in size and requirements.)

Android and Meego are attracting A LOT of attention. However, NetBSD using Openbox (a window manager) is the way to go. I’ve been scouring the inet today looking at IGEPv2 alternatives. I would love to give this board a try–particularly due to its diminutive size and offerings (I’m aiming for something I can power using the smallest of solar energy and wind generated power.)

What are those 6-pin, 10-pin and 32-pin connectors for ? Can hard drivers be connected on those ?

Those are headers for JTAG, camera and display, and GPIO. Hard drives can be connected using USB.

[…] Projekt weitere Fortschritte, so gibt es jetzt z.B. die ersten richtig produzierten Boards in einer Alpha-Version und zum anderen macht auch der Software-Support Sprünge nach vorne. Man hat es sogar geschafft […]

Posting here as I can’t seem to post in Forums at all due to Email address not being valid error :(

Some talk re paying for mice/keyboards and it supposedly costing a fortune!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/NEWLink-USB-Keyboard-Mouse-Cable/dp/B001FB6WMS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315062226&sr=8-1

Would allow using of old PS/2 equipment at a reasonable cost. Shows £1.10 free delivery – although probably just within UK free delivery. Was at a carboot this afternoon and old ps/2 mice/keyboards were everywhere, usually for a £1 or less.

Can it run on an intel processor

No.

Looks awesome. Read all the great stuff here. Outstanding! :)

Brilliant. It is a bit larger than the USB-key sized thing (yes, I noted the final board will be smaller), but it gives space for SD card, ethernet, and composite video. $35 (model B) is €25 (according to Google), I am *so* looking forward to this. :-)

[thinks… I wonder if I could mount it *inside* the Livebox and jack into its power brick supply? There’s a USB port in the Livebox which by spec ought to be capable of 500mA, so there ought to be enough spare power to run this, no?]

FWIW, my pay is… lame. I’d like to buy one give one but I can’t afford that. It might be an idea to how a “donation” option instead? I would be happy to pay a little extra, say, €40 ($57 according to Google) for a model B board. This will be offset, however, by how much postage costs are. Do you have an estimate for posting one to France? I’ve seen some companies who will send stuff (with basic track’n’trace) for a fiver, and some who will hit you fifteen odd. Then there are those who strictly deal with the likes of UPS. I don’t need it *tomorrow*, not at those sorts of prices!

To respond to some of the other posts here – it is a shame there is no VGA out. I have absolutely *nothing* that will cope with HDMI so it’ll be composite video for me. However, I intend to set up an experiment box/webserver on the thing, plug it into my Livebox, and just leave it running there. Management will be SSH login, and if anything on-board is required, I can just jack the composite output into my computer’s USB TV tuner box.

Regarding powering from USB, the provisional design requires a minimum of 6v input so that wouldn’t work.

Regarding postage and packing, it will be charged at cost – Raspberry Pi Foundation won’t use use P&P as a way to skim profit. To get an idea of shipping costs, take a look at http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder?catId=23500532&gear=pricingcalc&campaignid=pricefinder_redirect

Hav you thought of putting dual sd 1 for the os and the 2nd for data/config storage ?

Too expensive in board space and and connectors I am afraid.

Multiple partitions on the SD card work pretty well, and you could always add a USB card reader….

Nice t-shirt

[…] Pi geschrieben. Mitte August hat das Projekt dann einen großen Schritt gemacht — die ersten Alpha-Boards kamen an. Die Alpha-Boards sind eine fast fertige Variante des Systems, die bereits in einer Art […]

will I be able to use your design for commercial purpose?
Is there a max limit on board quantities for ordering?
In that case, hope you will be able to provide me all the details to manufacture the board on my own(ex: beagleboard).

4 layer board seems pretty impressive, will be cheaper to manufacture.
I tried to get beableboard xM manufactured on my own, but bringing the price below 50$(for quantities upto 1000) seems really difficult.

Hope raspberry PI will be the perfect board for me.

1) Yes.
2) Only for the first batch – for large quantities best to get in touch first.
3) I think it unlikely you would be able to source the SoC for making you own boards, and if you could, it won’t be as cheap as we get it. Since we supply at cost, you are also unlikely to be able to make the boards to the same price!

Hi,

we are a micro company here in Northern Ireland and have developed a heating control system, using a pc. We would like to hear more about your product.

I have a couple of questions…
1. when will the dev kit be available?
2. will the board/linux version be able to run Java?
3. How many i/o are available?
4. does it have a serial port?

Thanks
Gary
b

I want my Raspberry Pi!!!! How long before you have a store?

I’ve got a feeling WoL will be massively sought after once it has been released. Most likely a feature that people won’t appreciate until they realise they want it and the hardware doesn’t support it. Please do your best to see it implemented!

Is it possible to use the GPIO pins/port for SATA/IDE? (Use the hardware as a fileserver)

Looking forward to getting one!

anybody managed to get xbmc running on it, I currently run the xbmc4xbox version and the live version from a flash drive on an old laptop. would be interesting to get this up and running with it.s hdmi o/p , ideal for going mobile with a usb hdd

… [Trackback]…

[…] There you will find more Infos: raspberrypi.org/archives/78 […]…

WOO

Good idea! Will study and likely buy one.

Were can I purchase one of these Raspberry PI from. Can you email me the supplier so I can make a purchase. Many thanks.

Don’t all jump on me at once….nah go ahead But would it be possible to add a simple dialer software with username/password so people without broadband could access the internet with a usb dialup modem ?

It would be great if you offered modem interfaces (RJ11) instead of the RCA.

I think the demand for that built in is about 5 people! You will need to use a Linux compatible USB->modem adapter.

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