Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC • Hacker News Board

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#241

Post by pvg » Mon, Nov 02, 2020, 1:27 PM UTC

atonse wrote: post #236

pvg wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would mean performence more then doubled on a yearly basis. How do you figure? They were released 30+ years apart. 2^30 would be a billion times faster. Instead it's something under 19 doublings, nowhere close to doubling every year for 37 years.

Isn’t Moore’s law a doubling (of density) every two years?

There are a lot of different ways to state it (often including constraints like price), in part because it's not really a 'law'. But the main thing is, 500k times performance does not represent 'more than doubling' performance on a yearly basis as this comment claims.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#242

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 02, 2020, 1:29 PM UTC

LeonM wrote: post #170

Is there any information on why it is called the '400'? there seems to be no important specification with 400 in it, so where does the name come from?

[deleted]

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#243

Post by varispeed » Mon, Nov 02, 2020, 1:29 PM UTC

One missed opportunity regarding the educational value is that it is a shame they used some BGA chips instead of more soldering friendly package. People then could learn how to mod these by swapping RAM or other components or training repairs. Sure you can do BGA as well, but it may be too intimidating for a beginner and may require special equipment.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#244

Post by paleogizmo » Mon, Nov 02, 2020, 1:29 PM UTC

dbancajas wrote: post #224

raverbashing wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "not the situation"? That they can't afford old computers? That it's not practical? That they don't need and can buy newer ones?

The schools in india can barely afford computer. and so are not throwing them away 1-2 years later.

The better question is what the used enterprise computer market is in India. Given that engineering salaries are no longer an order of magnitude less than the USA, I would assume that there would be a large secondary market of sub $200 laptops and SFF desktops. Is that not the case? Do businesses keep them till the wheels fall off? Do they get exported overseas? Can schools not compete on price with middle class consumers for used computers?

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#245

Post by Woodi » Mon, Nov 02, 2020, 1:31 PM UTC

That is so cute ! IMO trendsetter :> But still C64 rules!

In mean time I will stick with my lovely Thinkpad X60 - it have 2 Gb RAM less, old wifi, worse display options but better cpu, true-and-only keyboard, "mouse" and display build in ! It runs OpenBSD without a blink, do www stuff, even yt (but fullscreen is a challenge) - perfect for what Pi400 is advertised for.

I also have x200, x220, t420 and t430 (But also this shows Pi400 is quite capable and ehmm... modern ;)

So, RPi Company hurry up that lazy nVidia !

And hope Mozilla will not kill/waste Firefox and themselves... Like they usually do when MS or G have soon be to present new, shiny browser...

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#246

Post by fanf2 » Mon, Nov 02, 2020, 1:31 PM UTC

Foivos wrote: post #157

Is the USB-C only for power? Could you plug it in a monitor directly through USB-C, so that you could have display and power (and possible access to the hub of the monitor) through single cable?

If it is like the Raspberry Pi 4B then the USB-C port has a USB-2 data connection for OTG / gadget mode purposes. No high-bandwidth data.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#247

Post by krageon » Mon, Nov 02, 2020, 1:32 PM UTC

deeringc wrote: post #151

krageon wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure your experiences are legitimate, just like mine for similar usage profiles are. My only conclusion can be that it's not the hardware itself that's the problem, unless we allow for the possibility that it's different batching. Unlikely, but not unthinkable.

But we've already established that these are meant for "the promotion of teaching basic computer science in schools and in developing countries". In these situations with young, untrained hands, durability and robustness are absolutely key criteria. It's not good value if it ends up discarded/broken due to additional complexity or a fault.

I did mention "similar usage profiles"

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#248

Post by kup0 » Mon, Nov 02, 2020, 1:33 PM UTC

I don't know why I love the idea of this thing, but I do

Maybe because it reminds me of my very first computer, a Tandy 1000HX, which also had a keyboard as its case.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#249

Post by fanf2 » Mon, Nov 02, 2020, 1:35 PM UTC

miki123211 wrote: post #113

If there was a way to attach a battery to this, and possibly an external speaker, this would be a pretty cool setup for a notetaker for the blind. We had talking and braille notetakers (basically our equivalent of PDAs), years before the rest of the world heard about such devices. They've been falling out of fashion lately, mostly because they're so expensive, compared to cheaper but slightly worse alternatives like…

Sadly the 400 lacks the audio socket that the 4B has :-( so audio out is only available over HDMI or Bluetooth.

You can probably power it from a USB battery pack quite nicely.

Re: Raspberry Pi 400 Desktop PC

#250

Post by 0-_-0 » Mon, Nov 02, 2020, 1:44 PM UTC

pvg wrote: post #241

atonse wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t Moore’s law a doubling (of density) every two years?

There are a lot of different ways to state it (often including constraints like price), in part because it's not really a 'law'. But the main thing is, 500k times performance does not represent 'more than doubling' performance on a yearly basis as this comment claims.

BTW it's a doubling every 1.54 years