This is like the best-documented vaporware ever. I hope they prove me wrong soon.
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Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC
41–50 of 89 posts
Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC
#42Earlier 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.
Oh, there's a video. Does that help?
Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For real portability, how about an SD system thumb drive I can plug into any computer, and it boots as my computer. Linux distributions have been doing this very successfully for the past 9 years (knoppix paved the way, but almost every linux distribution today can run live from a CD/SD/DiskOnKey, and store your data on an SD/DiskOnKey (the same one, if properly partitioned). And it's unlikely a hotel or your stude…
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…
Joe here - I am unaware that USB/SD sticks are fast enough to run as my system drive. Ok, cool. I haven't used a stick in years (ever since this new thing called the Internet showed up).
Yes, agree with Mr Binary - in a perfect world, computer hardware and software are completely divorced. The hotel wouldn't worry about viruses, because there would be no storage on their computer at all - I provide that with my stick. All I need is a 'kiosk computer', hardware that I can repurpose.
Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, that's the primary use in my mind. Not gonna be much use to a primary school student.
Au contraire, it's perfect for kids. First off (as a parent of two toddlers) it's CHEAP; if a kid manages to destroy it (the little entropy generators kids are), so what - get another. Next, it starts so simple (and CHEAP) that you'll have no qualms about running simple cheap software on it. Then, you'll think nothing of putting money into a computer for any/all TV in the house (I'm waffling about a Mac Mini, but a R…
Sounds idyllic; but what are you going to run? The latest Office suite? Photoshop?
Whatever you answer, the cost dwarfs the device, and swamps its processing power.
So, we're talking about teaching kids to use some special kid-computer with software/tools they will never encounter ever again. What tools are these? A BASIC interpreter?
Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Actually the Roku also has wifi, IR, and of course a power supply. For +$10 you can get bluetooth as well.
Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Custom small-time boards get expensive quickly when you shoot for tighter tolerances, which are necessary for truly tight spacing. If Raspberry Pi expects to sell 10 million units, then even a fancy board will cost nothing, but I doubt they are planning on such numbers...
Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC
#47Earlier 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…
Joe here - I am unaware that USB/SD sticks are fast enough to run as my system drive. Ok, cool. I haven't used a stick in years (ever since this new thing called the Internet showed up). Yes, agree with Mr Binary - in a perfect world, computer hardware and software are completely divorced. The hotel wouldn't worry about viruses, because there would be no storage on their computer at all - I provide that with my stick…
If what you're using works for you there's little reason to switch. I have had certain consraints in how I use computers that motivated me to explore different alternatives that "do more with less". But as users demand smaller devices and more portability I'm beginning to wonder if these "unconventional" alternatives are not generally useful for others besides me.
Not only do I divorce the OS from the hardware, but I separate the OS from my personal data. Unless I have both wholly residing in RAM (which I find generally faster than HDD or USB/SD), they are not on the same media. As much as possible I try to make the OS read-only and the media used for data (e.g. RAM for short-term data storage or HDD for long-term data storage) read-write. Perhaps there are parallels to certain object file formats and their separation of code and data.
I've also thought a lot about and experimented with the use of separate, simplified, fast-booting OS's for different purposes. I am forced to use different OS's to perform certain tasks. But the popular all-purpose OS's are huge and often I only need a small fraction of their functionality.
What if we did not think in all or nothing terms about OS functionality? What if some OS's were small and only limited-purpose?
Rebooting is the slow step. But these limited-purpose OS's, being small and simple, can be very robust and responsive once booted.
The smaller the kernel and userland, the more RAM I have for storage.
Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Au contraire, it's perfect for kids. First off (as a parent of two toddlers) it's CHEAP; if a kid manages to destroy it (the little entropy generators kids are), so what - get another. Next, it starts so simple (and CHEAP) that you'll have no qualms about running simple cheap software on it. Then, you'll think nothing of putting money into a computer for any/all TV in the house (I'm waffling about a Mac Mini, but a R…
Sounds idyllic; but what are you going to run? The latest Office suite? Photoshop? Whatever you answer, the cost dwarfs the device, and swamps its processing power. So, we're talking about teaching kids to use some special kid-computer with software/tools they will never encounter ever again. What tools are these? A BASIC interpreter?
> Whatever you answer, the cost dwarfs the device, and swamps its processing power.
Linux costs 0, and runs on far less capable devices than the RaspberryPi.
Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC
#49If 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
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Re: Raspberry Pi reveals the final PCB design for the $25 PC
#50Earlier 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…
Joe here - I am unaware that USB/SD sticks are fast enough to run as my system drive. Ok, cool. I haven't used a stick in years (ever since this new thing called the Internet showed up). Yes, agree with Mr Binary - in a perfect world, computer hardware and software are completely divorced. The hotel wouldn't worry about viruses, because there would be no storage on their computer at all - I provide that with my stick…
> I haven't used a stick in years (ever since this new thing called the Internet showed up).
The first USB sticks came on the market in 2000, so I very much doubt you stopped using them before the Internet showed up.