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Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC

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Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What doesn't look legit? The PCB silks look typical, the board size is about right for a small SoC-based design. You just need a lot of space for those large connectors like SD/MMC and HDMI. There are other designs recently launched of the same size and capability like BeagleBone or the Gumstix line.

The part that's suspicious is the $25 price point (the BeagleBoard is $125, the BeagleBone is $90, the Gumstix is $150-$250 depending on configuration). How many products can you name for under $50 (2x the cost of the Raspberry Pi) that approach its specs and capabilities? Also, they're aiming for user-friendliness to the point where it is supposed to be an educational product for young people. These are both really,…

Actually ...

Roku has something with similar specs for $50 retail (which means they sell it to retailers at $30 at most). And Apple has something called "AppleTV", which has a little more hardware on it (wifi, power supply, ir remote receiver + remote, 8GB of flash), and sells for $90.

Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC

#32
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A comment like Joe's really surprises me. Time and again I see brilliant coders who for whatever reason cannot see the path to making their own live USB/SD sticks. But there's a better solution than beagle's suggestion. Sell hardware that has no bundled OS. Sell different OS's on removable media (e.g. memsticks). Or users can create their own OS memsticks. Apple is primarily a hardware company, as evidenced by the va…

uh, you can run other OSs on Apple hardware. It's a little bit trickier because of EFI but it's not hard. What you can't do (Apple say) is run Apple OSs on non-Apple hardware.

I don't want the Apple OS. Remove it completely from the hardware, make the firmware more friendly to non-Apple OS, then I'll buy more Apple hardware.

Other than NetBSD, I was not aware it's "easy" to run other OS's on Apple hardware. Knowing Apple, I'm still not sure I believe it.

But I will investigate. Thanks for the FYI.

Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What doesn't look legit? The PCB silks look typical, the board size is about right for a small SoC-based design. You just need a lot of space for those large connectors like SD/MMC and HDMI. There are other designs recently launched of the same size and capability like BeagleBone or the Gumstix line.

The part that's suspicious is the $25 price point (the BeagleBoard is $125, the BeagleBone is $90, the Gumstix is $150-$250 depending on configuration). How many products can you name for under $50 (2x the cost of the Raspberry Pi) that approach its specs and capabilities? Also, they're aiming for user-friendliness to the point where it is supposed to be an educational product for young people. These are both really,…

My hunch is that the final price will be something slightly more, or else Broadcom is going to subsidize the project to some degree. They're already easying buyers into the idea of a $35 "Model B" version that has the ethernet magnetics on it and more memory etc.

Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC

#34
post #20

This is like the best-documented vaporware ever. I hope they prove me wrong soon.

What doesn't look legit? The PCB silks look typical, the board size is about right for a small SoC-based design. You just need a lot of space for those large connectors like SD/MMC and HDMI. There are other designs recently launched of the same size and capability like BeagleBone or the Gumstix line.

The post to shipping ratio is low.

Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC

#35
post #28

If they think this PCB is "packed" they haven't looked hard enough at a smartphone teardown. Go look at the iPhone 4S teardown: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4S-Teardown/6610/2

Difference is the iPhone has insane margins. You want to pay $35 or $100?

Judging by how tight some of those discretes are packed on the board, Apple also has some serious pick and place machines.

Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC

#36
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What doesn't look legit? The PCB silks look typical, the board size is about right for a small SoC-based design. You just need a lot of space for those large connectors like SD/MMC and HDMI. There are other designs recently launched of the same size and capability like BeagleBone or the Gumstix line.

The post to shipping ratio is low.

I'd stay away from Kickstarter, then.

Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC

#37
post #28

If they think this PCB is "packed" they haven't looked hard enough at a smartphone teardown. Go look at the iPhone 4S teardown: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4S-Teardown/6610/2

Difference is the iPhone has insane margins. You want to pay $35 or $100?

It's not the PCB that's expensive. It's the components on it.

Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What doesn't look legit? The PCB silks look typical, the board size is about right for a small SoC-based design. You just need a lot of space for those large connectors like SD/MMC and HDMI. There are other designs recently launched of the same size and capability like BeagleBone or the Gumstix line.

The part that's suspicious is the $25 price point (the BeagleBoard is $125, the BeagleBone is $90, the Gumstix is $150-$250 depending on configuration). How many products can you name for under $50 (2x the cost of the Raspberry Pi) that approach its specs and capabilities? Also, they're aiming for user-friendliness to the point where it is supposed to be an educational product for young people. These are both really,…

The tplink wr703n is a 400mhz MIPS computer with a USB port, an Ethernet port, and wireless networking which sells for about $20 (on volumerates.com, which is unfortunately down at the moment). It has a completely functional Linux port and is supported by OpenWRT. Not as fast, and fewer peripherals than the Raspberry Pi, but an indication that the $25 price point on the pi is doable, I think.

Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC

#39
post #28

If they think this PCB is "packed" they haven't looked hard enough at a smartphone teardown. Go look at the iPhone 4S teardown: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4S-Teardown/6610/2

Difference is the iPhone has insane margins. You want to pay $35 or $100?

$100? heh the 16gb 4s is $200(+fees, tax, etc.) because its subsidized with a 2 year contract. I think it's something like $650 if you buy it unlocked. compared to a $25 - $35 computer? Apples and oranges ;)

Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC

#40

Cool. Portable. Cheap. Can run Quake II. But what does that get you? Still need to plug into a monitor, keyboard, mouse. So you can only use it where those things are. For real portability, how about an SD system thumb drive I can plug into any computer, and it boots as my computer. That would be portable. Useful for a student lab, at my Mom's house, in a hotel. Just a thought.

This thing does 1080p through hdmi and has a hardware video decoder. An xmbc port is being worked on for it, i plan on getting a few of these and using them as xbmc server's on my hdtv's. Can't beat it for $25/$35 + a few bucks for a 4 gig memory card
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