Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#1

Post by MarcScott » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:00 AM UTC

Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
raspberrypi.org

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#2

Post by djfergus » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:26 AM UTC

Love watching the progress of Raspberry Pi. The attraction of the platform to me (compared to something more capable, with more ram ghz etc) is that the ecosystem is now so mature, you can easily google and get a cut and paste guide to exactly what you want to do. This means you can spend time tinkering with aspects that interest you rather than maintaining an operating system or troubleshooting hardware...

I'm curious to see how far optimisations could go. Analagous to the old consoles where developers could squeeze incredible performance out (compared to the equivalent processors elsewhere) since it was so uniform. e.g. the later games on a nintendo or neo geo were incredible compared to what was capable on a typical 8/16 bit computer of the time.

A $5 version is just going to accelerate this ecosystem... looking forward to it.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#3

Post by xzion » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:35 AM UTC

I was really hope they refresh the R-Pi compute module at a pricepoint like this.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#4

Post by robzyb » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:35 AM UTC

I just... I don't... I'm a bit lost for words.

The sheer amount of "stuff" you get for $5 (albeit USD) is staggering.

I am designing some simple electronics gadgets for Burning Man, and the electronics (low-end MSP430 based) for that is costing me a significant portion of $5 yet its significantly less powerful.

I know, I know, volume is a key issue, but honestly, that doesn't make it any less impressive to me.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#5

Post by foxpc » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:37 AM UTC

Ah well. I recently (a week ago) started a new project with the Arduino and then they release this beast. It's basically cheaper than an Arduino (except that there's no storage in the Pi) AND faster than the Arduino.

Sure, it won't have the same IO capabilities as there's much more layers but it will be pretty close and I don't really need great performance anyways.

I guess, I'll have to switch to the Pi, it's not even a fair race at this point.

(luckily for me, I was mostly writing the SaaS that would work with the Arduino and only spent about a full day's work doing C/C++ coding so far)

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#6

Post by linuxkerneldev » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:39 AM UTC

Nice. Interesting design choice to not have ethernet on it.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#7

Post by kevindeasis » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:49 AM UTC

This is intriguing.

Is there a list somewhere that shows the cheapest possible place to get raspberry hardware modules.

Also, where do you guys buy your modules? You can include Arduino stuff.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#8

Post by suneilp » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:52 AM UTC

Sold out at Adafruit which is really the only place to buy it in the US. Life is sad right now...

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#9

Post by Leuli » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:52 AM UTC

It would be nice if there was an interface to solder on one of these dirt cheap wifi modules. SPI?

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#10

Post by LeoPanthera » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:52 AM UTC

linuxkerneldev wrote: post #6

Nice. Interesting design choice to not have ethernet on it.

A logical omission. Something so small is likely to be mobile anyway.