Raspberry Pi moves manufacturing to the UK

I tracked down this snippet which says who built it:

"A feature it shares with the BBC is that it is an all-British product; designed by Acorn, it is being built by ICL and Cleartone with custom-built chips by Ferranti."

From this article: http://www.stairwaytohell.com/articles/cr-BBCMicro-CToday.ht...

This from The Reg has detail on production and the race to win the place as BBC computer partner - http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/30/bbc_micro_model_b_30th....

This guy, who appears to be an authority, mentions the above and AB Electronics, see http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/Computers/BBCMicros.html. He details info on the companies in the Acorn ecosystem, http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/Companies.html, but appears to miss out the suppliers ...

http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/docs/Mags/AU/AU_Nov84_IndiaTakes... gives detail of the Indian manufacture by Semiconductor Complex Ltd [under license from the American Rockwell Corp] and Mexican production by Harry Mazal (a company). It notes that the ULA will continue to be made by Acorn themselves (presumably in the UK).

>In both China and India, the consumer markets are comparatively small, but, as the Indian deal shows, the educational and industrial sectors are massive. And both countries are crying out for western technology //

Talk about turn-around.

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Edit:

http://yourcomputeronline.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/bbcs-prot... mentions:

>Acorn will probably subcontract assembly to Cleartone in Abercarn; the Department of Industry’s £60,000 contribution meant that assembly would have to be in Britain. It will be marketed under licence from a box number, by mail-order. //

Looking back http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/Computers/BBCAI2.html shows an Abercarn manufactured issue 2.

It depends on the design (PTH or SMD). A lot of PTH takes a lot of people, as many parts still can't be machine-placed.

The facility we use an hour from us runs about 600 PTH units (about 40 components/board) on one assembly line with 10 people in about 4 hours. I doubt one would always work them at that level. Lead-bending, wave soldering is all pretty much automated.

The bulk of an SMD process is done by pick-and-place, our stuff gets run on 10,000+ CPH machines. You need one person to load/de-load panels and switch out feeders - and one person can work multiple machines if everything is set up right. The machines in general are really good these days.

Printing and machining the PCBs takes some time, but this is a process that can flow continuously once you let a little backlog build up at each stage. Electrical testing can be slow at the back-end, as is polishing board edges, packaging, etc.

I could see it taking 30 people to do 10k a month, but the same 30 people possibly capable of 60k+ a month. It depends on where you load them in the process. The more SMD the more volume you can get up to the testing/packaging stage. rPi is mostly SMD, with some PTH - so they have to mix the processes, but its really hard to avoid...)

Notably, however, if you look at the Hackberry (which I like better, btw!) the vast majority of the connectors are SMD. I wonder if the rPI could see some labor savings (at higher BOM) by switching to them.

One thing we've been working on in-house is making big automated jigs to program and test entire panels of devices at once, before they're de-paneled. These are really expensive to make though (think $5k+ per jig) - but they save us thousands of hours of labor a year. We're moving to make machines that can do it without jigs now. Fun stuff =)

You appear intragnizent.

Despite my previous attempts to moonlight as a Brit, I'm an American. As such, I find the stereotypical British aversion to driving long distances amusing. I know I would be upset at driving 20 minutes out of the way if my journey was shorter than an hour, but I (and many other Americans) frequently drive hundreds of miles in one journey every week/month/multiple times per year.

I moderated a subreddit once upon a time with two Brits who lived about an hour apart. I mentioned to them that I had just attended a meeting with a company that was directly in between their towns, and said "I was just in your neighborhood". They vehemently denied that their neighborhood stretched for a half-hour journey. Meanwhile in America, our stomping grounds can sometimes cover a hundred miles in each direction.

Sorry for going off-topic >_> As an American I don't get a chance to talk to foreigners often.

I have always enjoyed the following phrase:

To an american, a hundred years is a long time. To a brit, a hundred miles is a long way.

It's definitely true, like you say, and also its faux-profundity makes me laugh.