Last May a UK-based company called Raspberry Pi announced plans to release a tiny PC the size of a USB key that costs just $25. The PC runs on a Linux based operating system. It will have a 700 MHz ARM11-based processor, 128 MB of SDRAM, USB 2.0 and HDMI ports and more. While we are still waiting for the company to release the PC, it has still been working to refine the device. Recently the company showed the tiny PC running id Software's 1999 first person shooter Quake 3 Arena (still one of the few games out there that have a native Linux port).
The video, which can be shown below, shows Quake 3 in action running off an SD card. As the developer team admits there are still some frame rate improvements that can be made but otherwise it's pretty remarkable that the team is able to run a port of this game on this device. It adds, " ... we’re hoping to show you a video of a bunch of us playing Q3 Deathmatch on some networked Raspberry Pis in a few weeks’ time – just because we can."
Meanwhile we are still awaiting word on when the first Raspberry Pi PCs will actually be released. The Raspberry Pi Foundation, a charitable organization, is creating these devices in order to bring more PCs to schools and students. There will be two models released; one is the $25 Model A. The Model B, which will have 256 MB of RAM, two USB 2.0 ports and an Ethernet port, will sell for $35. At the moment the Raspberry Pi Foundation is targeting a November 2011 launch.
Image via Raspberry Pi
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