FIRST LOOK: The $25 Raspberry Pi Computer

[chrisj1968]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-be-big-abc-news/first-look-25-raspberry-pi-computer-132227303.html

I want one just for giggles. What OS's run off of an ARM processor?hmm

This week we got our hands on the only Raspberry Pi Model A in the United States, thanks to Limor ?Ladyada? Fried and her team at Adafruit, a do-it-yourself company started by Fried in New York City.

Raspberry Pi is a simple, affordable computer designed by Eben Upton of the U.K., who dreamed of building a computer that?s accessible to anyone. To keep the cost down, only minimal components were included in this credit-card-sized computer. There isn?t even a case.

The Model A is the slimmed-down sibling of the $35 Model B computer that came out about a year ago, opening up a world to new computer programmers and fanatics. By removing the Ethernet connection and one of the two USB ports, and by reducing the amount of onboard memory, the company was able sell the Model A for all of $25.

In a short time, Raspberry Pi has created a devoted following of programmers who have taken the technology and run with it. It?s been used to build home arcades, capture images from near space, become a super-Nintendo -- even a supercomputer when a father and son linked 64 individual Raspberry Pi?s together.

The Model A is currently rolling out in Europe, but a U.S. release date hasn?t been set.

[Motoko.]

A microsd slot just tickles me for a storage solution

[chrisj1968]

i saw the pins set on the board, chance it could run a small HDD or other storage solution?

[The Evil Overlord]

interesting.... a tablet without the rest of it's hardware :p

seriously... I would think about getting one, just for the novelty factor :)

[AbandonedTrolley]

First look? really? These have been in the UK for months now. It's a full sized SD slot though not MicroSD, they can run a version of XBMC quite well, check out RaspBMC I've got one in the bedroom hooked up to the USB port on my TV, it powers up when I turn the TV on and streams my content quite well from my NAs.

[game_over]

First look? really? These have been in the UK for months now. It's a full sized SD slot though not MicroSD, they can run a version of XBMC quite well, check out RaspBMC I've got one in the bedroom hooked up to the USB port on my TV, it powers up when I turn the TV on and streams my content quite well from my NAs.

First look of the model a, perhaps? it's just been released. I've got the 512mb model B and building a SNES/PSX/NES/SEGA emulator.. just waiting for the last part to arrive hopefully today then i can work on it over the weekend.

[JaredFrost]

I've been trying to find a local Canadian supplier that is even remotely close to 30 dollars, US ones want 30 dollars for shipping to Canada, which is absurd.

[CPressland]

I've found an interesting use for the Pi.

I've spun up a Linux box running on one of my Servers and have a SNES Emulator on it, from there, two Raspberry Pi's VNC into said X Session and can both play the same SNES Game at the same time. Now I'm just finding a way for USB > SNES Adapters to work properly. Then we'll get LAN Multiplayer for SNES games :p

I've been trying to find a local Canadian supplier that is even remotely close to 30 dollars, US ones want 30 dollars for shipping to Canada, which is absurd.

A few of my friends in Vancouver have them, I'll find out where they ordered them from.

[The Evil Overlord]

I've been trying to find a local Canadian supplier that is even remotely close to 30 dollars, US ones want 30 dollars for shipping to Canada, which is absurd.

Befriend a truck or other delivery driver who goes to the states, ask him to get you one, then he/she can simply mail it to you once back in Canada

(my brother-in-law does this for me when sending me nutter butters, which aren't available in the UK)

[JaredFrost]

A few of my friends in Vancouver have them, I'll find out where they ordered them from.

That would be awesome, thanks.

Befriend a truck or other delivery driver who goes to the states, ask him to get you one, then he/she can simply mail it to you once back in Canada

(my brother-in-law does this for me when sending me nutter butters, which aren't available in the UK)

haha, I'll get on the CB and see if I can befriend some truckers.

[n_K]

Yeah, 'First look' is some kind of joke, the model a is a model b but doesn't have the ethernet port or the USB hub.

It's not new.

Arch linux arm runs on it, as does raspian, risc os does too.

It's not all that great, doesn't use much power and is equivilent to a 300Mhz intel CPU without any of the extra CPU instructions (SSE, MMX, etc.).

You have to boot from the SD card but you can have just the firmware on the SD and have it boot from a USB hard drive and whatnot.

[game_over]

I've found an interesting use for the Pi.

I've spun up a Linux box running on one of my Servers and have a SNES Emulator on it, from there, two Raspberry Pi's VNC into said X Session and can both play the same SNES Game at the same time. Now I'm just finding a way for USB > SNES Adapters to work properly. Then we'll get LAN Multiplayer for SNES games :p

what do you mean by USB > SNES Adapters? Does the server think each connection is a separate controller? sounds really cool..

[n_K]

You can get USB to SNES controller port adapters off ebay for like ?10, pretty expensive for what they are (very simple).

"Does the server think each connection is a separate controller?"

No, you'd map different controls. To make each connection a seperate controller you'd use the netplay mode of snes9x.

[game_over]

You can get USB to SNES controller port adapters off ebay for like ?10, pretty expensive for what they are (very simple).

"Does the server think each connection is a separate controller?"

No, you'd map different controls. To make each connection a seperate controller you'd use the netplay mode of snes9x.

Ahh, i didn't know such a thing existed.

I've gone one step further and linked a SNES port up to my RPi through the GPIO, freeing up both USB ports and looking really smart.

(not my image but done same thing)

You can get the ports out of a faulty SNES off ebay or you can buy the SNES controller extensions for ?4.99 and then you can use the left over cable to extend SNES controller even further.

SNESdev simulations a virtual keyboard for 2 SNES controllers: https://github.com/p...log/SNESDev-RPi