We have PCBs!

Unpopulated PCBs, but solid, tested, silkscreened and beautiful PCBs nonetheless. Here are some pics from Pete, which he appears to have taken through the bottom of a milk bottle strapped to a mobile phone (although he did take the time to edit out his credit card number from the one where he uses his card for scale). He’s promised me some sharper and larger ones later on, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t thank me for sitting on these and not showing you.

Bare beta PCB with pound coin and keyboard for scale

The back of the board

A demonstration that the Raspberry Pi really is the same size as a credit card

We’ve made 100 of these betas, which will now be populated with components (I don’t have an ETA from Pete on the completed boards, but I promise you I’m as keen to find out as you are). Raspberry Pis from this very first, small batch, will be going on sale when they’ve been tested, most likely via an auction so that we can raise some money from those collectors who are very keen to get their hands on devices with a very low serial number. I can’t make any promises here, as it all depends on how they perform in testing, but we anticipate that happening before the end of the year. As soon as they’re finished, we’ll be starting production in earnest.

Given that today’s the 30th anniversary of the BBC Micro, writing this post is giving me a very pleasant warm glow.

198 comments

Txoroa avatar

Cool!!

ads avatar

Plus it’s like those plastic thingies in cereal boxes, that you have to pry off their supporting “beams”.
Wanna guess how many people won’t spot the “tear-away” frame, and remark it’s bigger than a CC ? ^^

Will Cross avatar

My friend just said that in class. It was hilarious ;D

Xavier McLallen avatar

…that would be me…

Jan Erik avatar

NIIIICE!!! :P

Heppie avatar

wahey :D

Patrick Szalewicz avatar

Wow!
Very nice!
But I have a question.
You said, that the first 100 pieces will be sold probably through an auction.
Will you sell the other 9.900 pieces in this year?
Or in the next one?
I would love to buy some this year to give them away as a christmas gift.
Love to hear from you soon.

Lovely greetings from germany

Patrick

liz avatar

I don’t think, sadly, that you’re going to be able to give them away as Christmas gifts this year. We will, however, be making as many of these as we can sell (not just 10k) in the new year, so I suggest you get planning for birthdays, anniversaries and wedding presents!

netomx avatar

told yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

jamesh avatar

Oooooo, arn’t you the clever one….

netomx avatar

Id o.

R4V3N0U5 avatar

Awesome.

yuriks avatar

Is that (seemingly detachable) outer frame for mounting? Or is it just for manufacturing and will be snapped off on shipped units?

liz avatar

No – that’s just a mounting that’s part of the production process which is removed and sanded clean before you buy the board.

Sylvain avatar

It think it could be interesting to keep it , at least for the first batch without mounting holes …

It’s interesting to see the real PCB, but “release date” seems to be postponed more and more …

One last think : soldering connectors to the JTAG “holes” (any face) and to GPIO holes (component face), does not seem easy to me at all !

liz avatar

Well you won’t be soldering anything to the JTAG because it’s the JTAG for the GPU, which you can’t do anything with. As for the GPIOs – I look forward to seeing photos from the community to demonstrate that it’s not too tricky at all!

ricky roberson avatar

Excellent solder masking, from the looks of it I would expect no problems at all hand soldering a pin header on that board. Let me at it!

Curinga avatar

I also would be happy to see outer frame with mounting holes in my package at home. Maby you would be able to get it under consideration? Nevertheless it is pleasure to see almost final work done:).

Simon avatar

Rest assured that soldering pins into the board is way easier than removing them later…

Bye,
Simon

Eggn1n3 avatar

Great stuff! Btw, Pete’s creditcard has expired as it is valid through 9/11 ;-)

liz avatar

I expect that’s why he chose that one to use as an illustration! (I’m not sure that it’s even his – there are a lot of people in his office.)

Patrick Szalewicz avatar

=,(
Okay.
But when will you sell the other ones?
Probably in January or later?

liz avatar

As soon as we can.

DaVince avatar

Put that frowns upside downs! I mean, look at this beauty! Production seems to be going great, and delays are only to be expected. I’m psyched.

Plant avatar

Love the logo on the board

liz avatar

It looks great, doesn’t it? We’re really pleased with the way it turned out.

Plant avatar

Yes, it looks really cute!

Strix avatar

Beautiful!

Fred avatar

Very nice!!! :) :) :)

Eggn1n3 avatar

Looking at it more closely now, this is a real piece of art! Look at the place where the processor will come, all those tiny dots!!!

mkopack avatar

So realistically it looks like we won’t be able to order until January then… Sucks but not entirely unexpected..

Wonder who the lucky little Elf is who gets to try to solder in all those teenie tiny little parts! GOD I HATE surface mount stuff! I’m too ham fisted to solder that stuff…

liz avatar

We use pick and place robots, although I think replacing them with pick and place elves for Christmas would be fabulous.

Unagichan avatar

Just put little elves hats on the robots and paint the tools in candy cane red and white, should be enough to please santa.

Jongoleur avatar

Glad to see you didn’t twiddle too long!

It does look good….

ukscone avatar

They look nice. Even the logo looks good on the board. Can’t wait to see a populated one

engelmoer avatar

would it be possible to leave the frame attached? saves some sanding and you have some mounting holes right there! (and if you want it smaller you can still break it out).

liz avatar

Nope.

meltwater avatar

B-E-A-U-itful!
I except the release will miss my birthday too, very start of Jan. Still, looking forward to when they do come. Excellent to see the boards!

steaky avatar

So is that standard practice to have the squares of copper on the waste strip. We use a company called Evolution Circuits (based in Kettering) and I believe they use Nippon in China (could be wrong though). Anyway, they do the same thing with the squares of copper.
Also, what are you guys doing with regards with UL certification – or arent you bothering with that?

liz avatar

It’s not necessary for development boards. As regards the copper, I’m not sure, but I believe it’s standard practice. We have a view that we prefer to build the boards in the UK – our charity is trying to kickstart the tech industry in Britain, so it seems daft to go to China if we can possibly make them here.

We’re signed up to all the electronic waste management protocols, enterprises and schemes that you can shake a stick at (and they cost a fortune for volumes like ours compared to what the really big players have to pay, but that’s another story).

Gert avatar

Yes, it is called ‘copper density’. Basically you can not have large areas with no copper. If you do that the tracks near the ‘uncoppered’ area will get thinner with the possibility of a no-connect.

steaky avatar

Gert,
Makes sense. I’m looking at getting IPC certification some time in the future, so hopefully I will get a much fuller appreciation and understanding.

Brian Starkey avatar

I spent a rather long time investigating transmission line impedances on PCBs, and learnt many many things about PCB construction along the way.
The way I understand it is that the squares of copper around the edge help regulate how much resin ‘squeezes’ out in the manufacturing process, which ultimately determines the spacing between layers on the PCB.
Less/smaller squares means more resin flows out, which results in thinner layers of substrate. Could be wrong though…

Yaz avatar

May I suggest a little update for the PCB, do it with small rounded corners like a credit card (even if it’s very small rounded corners to avoid being hurt when manipulating)

Otherwise, just awsome !

liz avatar

If we can find a way to do that without it adding a single penny to the cost, we’ll do it.

Yaz avatar

Normally, you have just to make a little change in the path of the CNC machine which cuts the frame (sry for my english, not really sure with)

Ronny W avatar

No No No.. PCB are ment to have sharp edges and square.. they are beautiful as they are and have always been.. no Apple funky shit here please.. :P

nichobb avatar

yes need to be sharp like any component board! Without a blood sacrifice to the PCB to activate the ‘electronics’ magic it won’t work. Well that’s the only reason I can justify leaving drops of my loving O+ in servers across the land. (I have a raspberry crush now)

WASD avatar

Are there any holes for screwing it onto the bottom of a chassi I’m intending to make? The alpha-board seemed to have holes for this on each side.

liz avatar

No mounting holes, I’m afraid – sticky dots, a home-made bracket or something like Sugru is your friend.

Plant avatar

Sugru, that’s something else new I’ve learnt.

Can you use a hot glue gun? My usual weapon of choice.

ricky roberson avatar

Regarding serial numbers mentioned in your writeup – is there a silkscreen number on this / future boards, and if so, where? And also, I forget how this was finally answered on the forums – is there a serial number “burned into” the Rpi silicon so that a board can access its own serial number via programming?

liz avatar

They’re burned into a 1-time programmable ROM in the device.

Vivien avatar

For love of god, I really need one :)
It’s will be a pleasure to work for and develop on it !
Please stay amazing !

Antonio Oliveira avatar

Thank you for sharing these beautiful pics…

Romilly Cocking avatar

Fantastic. Congratulations, and thanks, to the volunteer team who have takes us so far.

The auction idea sounds good, in that it will give the more well-heeled supporters a way of showing support in a practical way, but I feel sorry for those enthusiasts who have more passion than money.

Maybe you could have a draw from those who have posted in the forum for one or two low-serial boards.

RtC avatar

Or, a lottery.
A pound for a 1 in a 100 chance would pay for 3 free student boards and overhead. Not sure about the legalities.
Pushing it but if you could get the tickets out in time for the festive season.
Regards

shaurz avatar

Very exciting! As an eBay-aholic I might be tempted to bid on the first batch auctions…

KyRol avatar

Why photos are so tiny?

liz avatar

You’d have to ask Pete!

psergiu avatar

Pete ! Get a better camera and start snapping photos – we need new high-res wallpapers :-)

Montekuri avatar

Fantastic!
And I don’t have to worry about mounting holes.
I can press (softly) with the acrylic case (holes and screws on the acrylic).

ProDigit avatar

You could create a housing like this, which presses on the PCB internally by a ‘click’ mechanism. It’s probably the cheapest design, and looks slick enough:
http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_48656_1.jpg

Ecume29 avatar

VERY Nice !!!

themysticalneo avatar

Just out of curiosity how many Stickers have you sold at this point?

liz avatar

We’ve had orders for about 6,000 stickers.

Fred avatar

Hi liz,
Are these boards Raspberry Pi A or B?
I just can’t wait to buy one! :)
Thanks
Fred

liz avatar

They’re both. The B is the A with some additional components.

Thomas Mueller avatar

Both the A and B model use the same board.

nghia avatar

SUPERBE.

Will we be notified for the auction?

liz avatar

No, I was planning on keeping it a secret.

(Make any judgement you like about the tone of voice the above sentence is meant to be conveyed in.) ;)

wrhii avatar

I just KNEW it.

[…] Read some-more during Raspberry Pi […]

Michael avatar

I’d love to know the enumeration of the varous connectors according to the silkscreen. Unfortunately the photos are slightly out of focus so all I’ve gleaned so far is

P1 GPIO
P2 + P3: 7-pin and 8-pin headers (one being JTAG)
P4 Ethernet
S1 Power
S4 either composite or smartcard

Bakul avatar

Very nice!

I am sure you have considered rounding the corners as then it *just* might fit in an Altoids tin! But connecting cables to it may be a bit hard as Altoids tins have 1/4″ radius corners (IIRC)!

pi-curious avatar

Will the model A and B be built on this same pcb?

liz avatar

Yes.

Benedict White avatar

My 11 year old son keeps asking when he can get his hands on one.

Please let it be before Christmas! (I use Archlinux so can get it going for him).

Marcus Trent avatar

You sure it’s your son that want’s one? hahahaha

I have a whole class of nerds who’s sole topic during breaks is what they going to do with this tech when they get their hands on it and how they going to change the world.

A PC for $25 bucks…. I still can’t believe it.

Benedict White avatar

I told him it would help him to learn how to make computer programs like games, so of course he wants one. He keeps asking.

There is nothing that I can get on a RaspberryPi that I can’t get on the computer I am writing this from.

But if it’s HIS computer HE owns it. He can make of it what he will.

Will Brown avatar

awesome. shame about xmas being missed for the first batch but it strikes me as a tad cherish to sit on the sidelines and complain about it like some. i am happy for this to land on my doorstep when it can rather than when i want. keep up the good work.

KPR avatar

All I want for Christmas is…..

Beautiful little board, the coin is a little deceiving especially since I’m from Canada and our dollar coin is a lot bigger..

k.

Burngate avatar

… but not worth as much?

Felix avatar

Wow, I’m not the only one that thought that was a Canadian looney.

jtayl230 avatar

I’m officially addicted to Raspberry Pi news. I often find myself checking for new posts multiple times a day.
Thanks for the fix.

My deepest gratitude to all involved. Anyone can volunteer their time, but the organization and expertize it takes to pull off a feat such as the Raspberry Pi just makes me speechless.

Truly inspiring.

erest avatar

This is beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Cannot wait until the release!

JustACat avatar

Awesome!

Craig avatar

Forgive the noob observation, but the images that stirred interest in the community I’m a part of was a PC about the size of a 50p piece. Obviously Ive missed a lot, cos this is the size of a credit card – have I missed something obvious? I only ask because for the applications we’re thinking of, being larger with no components embedded now make it less attractive than a Nano-ITX?

jamesh avatar

The really small form factor was too expensive to produce, and didn’t have room for all the required connectors. I think you will find that Nano-ITX’s come in at more than $25/$35 all in.

Nicholas Macias avatar

Very pretty :) I’m so excited to get my hands on one of these. Hoping to be teaching a uP class beginning in January, and this would be a perfect device on which to teach it (they currently use x86 ).

I’m gonna have to find some awesome credit card case to carry this around in lol.

Sancho avatar

I am sorry if someone finds this offensive, but…
This remainds me with my first sexual encounter – LOTS and LOTS of teasing, but the final reward was worth it ;)

Farhan avatar

Will they come in a container/box of a sort to protect the internal wiring, or will we have to build one ourselves?
If so, how does one make his own?

I would love to get into electronic design, specifically to create my own USB hardware, but I don’t even know where to get started.

jamesh avatar

Cases will be available next year, until then use anything you like as long as you don’t short out any pins!

Gary Patterson avatar

Congratulations, that board looks great.

It must be very satisfying to finally see the fruits of all your labours, although I reckon there’s a fair bit of solid work before the (well-deserved) laurel-resting can happen.

zaylinda avatar

I saw this linked on TDWgeek about a week? ago, and I signed up for the email updates. I got the confirmation email, but then nothing else.
Imagine my surprise when I wandered back and found that there had been TONS of new updates!
Checking my spam folder… they aren’t getting sent there…
Is there something else I have done wrong? Does anyone else have this problem?

jamesh avatar

Email list is for really big news so we don’t get accused of spamming.

zaylinda avatar

I understand. Thank you.

7ymekk avatar

You should definitely add “join spamming list” ;) I would love to get info about all new posts at this website. These important news and these small ones

Best regards Raspberry team. keep being awesome

yannoslemanos avatar

Ca y est ont y voit le bout du tunnel ! Bon courage et bonne chance à toute l’équipe je suis pressé de voir ca !

[…] We have PCBs! Unpopulated PCBs, but solid, tested, silkscreened and beautiful PCBs nonetheless. Source: http://www.raspberrypi.org […]

walney avatar

If you are going to auction them as a collector’s piece, leaving the PCB border on might allow for some autographs

liz avatar

Manufacture doesn’t work like that, I’m afraid; we can’t just choose to leave it on.

kneekoo avatar

I’m sure what he meant is there would be interested people in buying that bare beta PCB just for the fun of it. It’s still considerably cheaper than the final product but add some autographs and it will add value for itself. :) And it will make a great souvenir of the first model. Why not consider that?

walney avatar

Exactly! How much better for a collector to get a signed edition – even if it’s not populated? (You could even get Mooncake to sign – a tradition that goes back to the amiga, which included the pawprint of Jay Miner’s dog.)

walney avatar

Am I the only one who’s noticed the rampant inflation?

On prototype boards a 20p piece was sufficient to show scale… now it’s a quid!

liz avatar

I think this is because Pete is richer than I am. ;)

Ian Hamlett avatar

I’m usually more into women but that board is sexy as hell.

matt avatar

I’m so excited for this! when can we preorder? Can any one suggest any links for more information on programs or guides for this bad boy?

jamesh avatar

No preorders I am afraid – see the FAQ for why.

Montekuri avatar

And, for more information, see the forum

Thomas avatar

Just for the future:
Are there plans for a board with more RAM?

liz avatar

PoP RAM is prohibitively expensive above 256MB at the moment. Moore’s law says that’ll change, so one day we hope to be able to offer you 512MB.

Sander avatar

PoP RAM? …. oh … Package-on-Package? As in “an integrated circuit packaging method to combine vertically discrete logic and memory ball grid array (BGA) packages.”?

jamesh avatar

Correct. The memory is a BGA chip on top of the SoC BGA chip. Pretty Funky!

ProDigit avatar

Would it make more sense to equip the device with 128 or 256MB of RAM, and add an additional 32-64MB of Vram (that same ram specially for the graphics processor)?

It would be cheaper than 512MB RAM, and dedicated VRAM would work faster too! (I presume)

liz avatar

No. The AP we use is a unified memory architecture device, so that’s not possible. There’s no distinction between video and system memory.

Crundy avatar

Awesome. I love that you managed to get the logo printed on the board as well.

Jan avatar

Are all the LEDs populated? If not, can you tell us their size and possibly their resistors too so I could get some? I would like all of them but they look really small.

mdafbmm avatar

I hope Pete isn’t planning any purchases. His card expired in September.

Montekuri avatar

That was said on December 1, 2011 at 6:32 pm by Eggn1n3

mdafbmm avatar

“That was said on December 1, 2011 at 6:32 pm by Eggn1n3”
said Montekuri on December 2, 2011 at 1:22 pm.

Fascinating

[…] Raspberry Piの公式サイトに、ついに「正式PCBが完成した」とのうれしい報告が書き込まれた! […]

Jac Goudsmit avatar

Cool pics! Can’t wait to own a populated version of one of these.

By the way, it always amuses me when photographers think that using some kind of local coin is a useful size reference. The credit card is, of course.

===Jac

Hernan Rodriguez Colmeiro avatar

Heh, yeah, or measuring things in funky measurements like inches or foots :P

scologic avatar

Guys, lack of any mounting points is bad design, I get the idea of teaching kids to program etc but not mounting points means the boards are going to get busted from handling all the time, and cables flipping things over etc.

Can us integrators elect to have the frame kept intact so we can mount the boards properly and schools can screw these to BIG chucks or wood in the IT lab.

At lease in a £4.50 alu case from maplin the can use double sided sticky mounting posts but no holes does leave hot glue = messy and possible short circuits etc.

OR can you point out 2 laces we can drill some mounting points on the PCB’s

I also see it’s become a new years resolution to supply the boards next year.. My previous thread prooving correct.. Very disapointing.

scologic avatar

sorry very poor keyboard today hence all the mistooks.

Montekuri avatar

I read a lot in the site, in the forum topics and in the FAQs.
There are a lot of information there. I found this oneÇ
Is there a case?
Not for the initial version, but there will be a (removable, in case you want to do some soldering) case available later.

Gert avatar

I suggest you have a look at the PCB and points where you want them. The requirements are simple: you need two areas near the corners which have about 5×5 mm which are unused.

Guthur avatar

Both the best and the worse news today.

Great to see visible progress
Bad to hear it’s release is now delayed to 2012.

Was really hoping to testing these puppies out through December.

scologic avatar

Is the PI going to be a Burns night gift, a Valentines gift or brought by the easter bunny……

I guess they need launch before the end of april so the schools can spend the last of their it budgets..

albert avatar

Hope they get out of beta soon!!! Want 1 Rasp!!!!!

ltsstar avatar

Hurry, otherwise the ARM will be outdated!

jamesh avatar

Well, the Arm is already a fairly old design – how outdated do you want to be?

ltsstar avatar

Just the 700 Mhz one is going to be outdated…

ProDigit avatar

They better design it with a Tegra 3 platform if they don’t want it to be outdated!

It’s a nice design, but if they don’t release it soon, it’s not going to see a lot of sales (due to cellphones being more powerful).

liz avatar

This is *exceptionally* good advice. Thank you. The Foundation is, however, not sure that we could stand the reduction in graphics performance, the increase in power usage and the fact that a single Tegra 3 comes in at more than the cost of a whole, assembled Raspberry Pi.

electrodacus avatar

Sad to find that the board is not available this year.
The board looks great but I have two questions:
1) will the SD card be flush with the PCB or stick out ?
2) is there also audio or microphone input since I see dual audio connectors?

Erick Baumgartner avatar

I believe the SD card will stick out. And there is an audio out, and the other thing you seeing and thinking is an audio jack is actually a video out.

Montekuri avatar

CONNECTORS OF THE R-PI:
You must see the other post to know what connectors the r-pi has:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/382

electrodacus avatar

I seen that but audio connector on this PCB has 8 pin total looks like a dual 3.5mm connector.

electrodacus avatar

I see for the audio connector 5 thru hole + other larger 3 so it looks to me like 2x 3.5mm jack in one package.
The video jack is separate larger holes.

electrodacus avatar

Well I guess it can be just an audio out and the pins is front are just for mechanical strength.

ProDigit avatar

OR, more logically, they could equip it with an audio out, and a mic/line-in !

ProDigit avatar

They could also equip a av out connector jack, 5-6 pin (with red/white for audio, and yellow for video, or even more, YPbPr out on that connector if they switched the design a bit.

manuel avatar

I cant wait to get one (or two or three or…) of your computers. Thats exactly the device im looking for.
Greetings from germany

Aidar avatar

perfect, waiting for videos

Thomas Willich avatar

I’m relly hoping you will be selling the first devices already this year! That would be a cool christmas present!

Do you think you will also be selling pre-installed systems when selling boards?

Montekuri avatar

There will be a SD card with a operating system installed on it. Sold separately.
Or, you can download the OP from the R-Pi site (for free) and write in your own SD card.

Montekuri avatar

Sorry. Not OP. It is OS (operating system)

ProDigit avatar

So it’s going to have an internal SD AND an external SD slot?

I am really against SD cards for operating systems, because their Fault tolerance / ECC is very low!
In a few months most operating systems will start to corrupt!
It’s much better to install a 2 or 4GB USB FLASH drive as operating system drive, than an SD card!

Please revise this! I speak from experience with Windows and Ubuntu on SD cards, it’s a big NO-NO!

liz avatar

No, just an external SD slot. If you have a look at the FAQ, you’ll understand why we’ve made this decision (take a look at some of the videos on the blog while you’re at it). We’re primarily a platform for computing in schools in areas where there’s not a lot of spare money kicking around, and the SD card decision was made with that in mind.

Dave avatar

Guys, keep up the good work! This is going to be quite awesome, I know I’m going to buy one, have no idea what I’m going to do with it yet, but I will think of something!

You make me feel nostalgic, I started off my career being a chip designer and then developing real time embedded code using single board computers.

tentimes avatar

This feels so like the 1980’s excitement all over again! I can’t wait to get my hands on (at least) a couple of these. I have been busy polotting and scheming for things to do with it.

I bet MI5 start using them for something! So, so cool.

Good luck for all the madness that will follow from release and I hope you really enjoy it!

Michael avatar

It’s a god damn masterpiece.

David Negaard avatar

I have a blog of koa wood, and the project I got it for only requires a small fraction of the whole. Might just have to carve a case for a Raspberry Pi out of another small fraction.

If only I had a 3-axis CNC-controlled router…

e2me2t avatar

30 years is a long time….I could never afford the BBC but I did have the precursor the Acorn Atom which I still have. We had the commodore PETs at school when the idea for the BBC computers came out. We did many a fundraising activity to try and raise cash so the school could eventually get some BBC computers.

Our programming skills were tested by sending our programs to the Uni to be run on their mainframe as the queue for the PETs was quiet long. Very disheartening for the few who waited a week to get a no run error!

Auctioning would raise some money but maybe save a few for those of us who don’t have the money to partake ;)

Alex Schaller avatar

Nice Job,
can’t wait to get my hands on one.
And btw the Creditcard is expired!

Alex

Åhlborg avatar

You WILL sell a lot more than 10000 of these. Please prepare the second batch as soon as possible so we won’t have to wait for too long if we miss the first one.
By the way, how many will be A and how many will be B?

Victor V. Vyasovtsev avatar

Good…

Gregsie avatar

WOW! about 30 years ago, I built a ZX81 from a kit, my first involvement with microelectronics. 30 years on, I’m now a chartered engineer and self confessed hardware addict. I hope that this device will enthuse the next generation of talented engineers, developers and designers to unleash their potential. This is a fantastic device that I believe will succeed.

Congratulations to the team for the excellent work to date and good luck with the commercial operation.

ProDigit avatar

What’s the max youtube video resolution this design can play back (720p, 1080p?)
Can in play back hulu and other sites video and at which resolution?
I heard youtube vid plays back better than those sites.

you guys have a driver for a blueray drive for this device? It’d be cool to know if it can run blueray through an external drive!

liz avatar

It plays video at 1080p. There isn’t currently a driver for a blu-ray drive.

ProDigit avatar

I’ve looked at the faq,
too bad though, I had hoped to save the sd cardslot as extension drive for storing pictures and the likes on!

If you ask me, it’d make more sense to equip the PCB with a USB slot internally. So a user can plug in a new (faster/larger) USB drive as primary boot drive.

Not only do USB flash drives work faster, and have higher IOPS, their fault tolerance precision (ECC) is much higher; meaning, you will have less files corrupting over time, and USB flash drives are more prone to files been written/rewritten.
SD cards tend to hang up on multiple file accesses per second, especially if they are including writes!

ProDigit avatar

Sorry, the reply ended up being a post. I was replying to the post Liz made about SD cards…

liz avatar

We’ve been working on this for five years now, and I’m afraid that all the ideas you’ve come up with this evening have been ideas we’ve had already and decided against for one reason or another! If you go to the forum and use the search you’ll see that flash drives, Tegra 3, other storage options, vRAM etc. etc. have been discussed there (and still are being discussed) in enormous length – dive in! The forums are a much easier place for this sort of discussion than the comments under blog posts.

JohnoFon avatar

I have to confess, Liz, that part of the pleasure of reading these blogs is in trying to estimate when you’re going to crack and suffer from tact failure. You’re doing a grand job putting up with us, though, and I’ve a sneaking suspicion that the answer is ‘never’.

ProDigit avatar

Also, USB flash drives, with their faster internal controllers, are sold for the same price as SD Cards (without controller).

jojopi avatar

So plug one in and store most of your files on it.

Lilian avatar

Connect a touch screen, install android on Raspberry Pi, and here you have a Tablet? :)

liz avatar

That’s pretty much the size of it. We’ve got quite a few people working on Raspi tablet projects in the forum – head over and have a squizz. There are some really good ideas kicking around in there.

Stephen Scott avatar

This looks great. It somehow seems fitting that the board is delayed until January. The BBC Micro was launched in December, but was also not available until January. Is this a deliberate tribute? ;-)

liz avatar

No, but I have to say, knowing that makes me feel pretty good!

Alex avatar

Hi Lyz,

Will the auction be online?

Cheers,

liz avatar

Yes, it will.

Frazzled Pup avatar

Are they here yet, Are they here yet, Are they here yet, Are they here yet, Are they here yet, Are they here yet, Are they here yet, Are they here yet, Are they here yet?

You know what they say, squeaky wheel and all ;)

Bill avatar

Well i guess i wont be buying a few of these for my linux class starting in january time to dust off the net book :(

ProDigit avatar

You could also do this on your phone! Also a great gadget!
I mainly would want this device for it’s price!
Last night I dreamt the raspberry pi was finally sold for 350 – $400, and I was like “Noooo! :-/ I can buy a laptop for that price!”
The raspberry or upgrade of it, stays competitive if it stays below USD$49 price.
Hopefully they will sell it in a small protection box, so shipping would not be too much either!
For the price and it’s a remarkable and capable device!

Signs avatar

Hey Liz,
Some stupid questions someone asked me today. First it is about Quality Assurance. Many Chinese products are produced and sold that do not have any QA what-so-ever, after they produce the first 100 they work, and there is no further testing but they have a very high failure rate in some instances. So my question is that if you are going to check every board before you sell them or you going to check 1 out of every how many?
Also, I got the question that what kind of warranty that will be offered on the boards? It would be embarrassing if I bought many and donated to different places and a couple of them only lasted a few days. Me, even if it was donated I would ask for the board to be replaced.
Now, with this being said, just because of the cost of the boards, that maybe you give a 30 day exchange warranty and charge a small price for a years warranty.

liz avatar

Hi Signs

We check every single board before we sell them.

You’re protected by the UK Sale of Goods Act (SOGA), which says that if we sell you a faulty device you can send it back for a refund or replacement, too. We will, of course, be applying the SOGA distance selling regs to all the boards we sell, including those that go outside the UK.

jeff avatar

Have you considered making the cards and components available with a schematic and letting us assemble them ourselves at a lower cost (ie-selling the parts with a “how to assemble” guide for my 10-year old son who is absolutely JAZZED about getting a pi…he loves legos and building and this looks like a great starter project!!).

jamesh avatar

Two reasons why we don’t do this. It would cost more, and the main components are so small they cannot be soldered at home.

steaky avatar

hehe, “cannot” just sounds too much like a challange.
I agree the PoP stuff would be improssible with an iron, but thats what the oven is for right…

Glenn avatar

count me in for the auction! very excited for you guys – what a stage to get to: just on the brink of a revolution (hopefully)… 5 years in the making did you say? wow. i wish you all the luck in the world.

glenn
devon, uk

andy avatar

Good news! We very waiting Raspberry Pi in Ukraine!!

foo avatar

Please publish a post explaining how we can possibly buy one from the first batch!!! :D

Montekuri avatar

Just click on the “Shop” button on the top of this site everyday.

mat Baker avatar

I so want one….

Ideeman1994 avatar

Nice! That would fit snugly into an altoids tin!

Alain RASKIN avatar

I would like to buy some PCB’s for testing matters is it possible ?

Thanks

Alain

JamesH avatar

No, they are not ready yet. We expect to have the first big run very early in the new year.

[…] Raspberry Pi group has been busy these last months. Today, the first images of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) were released. As promised, the PCB is uber small, nearly the […]

Quin avatar

I hate to bear bad news, but the first four of the bank card/credit card number are still visible. Not that it matters much, I think one of my cards has the same first four digits, but since you went to the trouble of trying to blank it out, I thought I should warn.

Tony avatar

saw this project in Edge and really impressed hope it sets the world alight in the best possible way

malcolm barnett avatar

well done so far, please could you let me know when I can buy some units, thanks for your time

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jack avatar

Good post. I learn something totally new and challenging on blogs
I stumbleupon every day. It will always be exciting to
read through content from other authors and practice a little something from their sites.

FERNANDO avatar

gostaria de saber o valor do CPU para envio no brasil

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