Raspberry Pi available to order today

[danrok]

Seems to be a big demand for this tiny, low-cost PC.

This is a Linux PC on a credit card sized PCB, and is intended for educational, and project use.

The Model B is priced at about USD$35.

The Model B can now be ordered here:
http://www.element14.com/community/groups/raspberry-pi

And, here:
Register here to express an interest in Raspberry Pi

Features

• Broadcom BCM2835 700MHz ARM1176JZFS processor with FPU and Videocore 4 GPU
• GPU provides Open GL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
• GPU is capable of 1Gpixel/s, 1.5Gtexel/s or 24GFLOPs with texture filtering and DMA infrastructure
• 256MB RAM
• Boots from SD card, running the Fedora version of Linux
• 10/100 BaseT Ethernet socket
• HDMI socket
• USB 2.0 socket
• RCA video socket
• SD card socket
• Powered from microUSB socket
• 3.5mm audio out jack
• Header footprint for camera connection
• Size: 85.6 x 53.98 x 17mm

[robbie]

Sweet!
BlackBerry8330m/4.5.0.186 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104

[booman]

YES!!!
I have been watching this for a while with a coworker...
I don't have a brilliant use for it yet, but I will keep brain-storming.
To bad its already sold out

[danrok]

Got an idea? The PI's the limit!

I can see this should have appeal that goes way beyond schools. Seems perfect for use in all kinds of situations, as an on-board computer in some kind of robot, or contraption of some sort.

Could even end-up in an art project.

[booman]

Art project? not a bad idea
what about a computer in a computer?

[danrok]

Running Quake III:

[booman]

that is AWESOME!
You had to show me games on the Rasberry Pi didn't you?
Now I'm getting ideas
I have the GL versions of Doom, Doom II, Hexen & Heretic, and Duke Nukem!
I'm getting ideas
Maybe I'll make my own classic gaming console

[cloasters]

Hopefully they'll seriously scale up production very soon. It's safe that they'll be able to sell millions of them in the coming years. Uh oh, come to think of it I can see folks bribing assembly outfits to NOT build them. Best of luck to the Pi people!
Wonder how much of APITA it would be to attach the output/input jacks and fittings from a kit?

[booman]

I paid for mine but its on backorder.
So I'll let you know when I get it.

I have another idea for Rasberry Pi...
A small remote station (VNC) where I can login from anywhere in my house.
no monitor
no keyboard
no mouse
Just a small machine tucked away, maybe for music, drivers, intranet... the list goes on

[cloasters]

Yeah, you could have a secret agent machine!

[booman]

how about a double-agent?
OSX thinks its a MAC and Windows thinks its a Windows machine... but in reality, Rasberry Pi is on its own team...
Team Linux

[danrok]

Reviewed by bit-tech...
http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/c...pi-review.html

[booman]

Pretty cool...
I can wait for software and more optimized operating systems.
I wait for everything else...
It would be nice to watch videos off the Rasberry Pi and maybe some internet, but for now its not a necessity.
Still waiting for mine

[Aedan]

The OS is already optimized - it's running Linux which has had a fair amount of optimisation applied over the years. What's currently lacking is some drivers for the hardware. GPUwise, it's looking like it's below the performance of GeForce 210 - but a GF210 card is about the same price as the Pi anyway. On the plus side, there is a HDMI CEC interface in the hardware, even if there's no drivers for it yet.

[booman]

Yeah, thats kinda what I meant...
I know Linux can be compiled with a bare minimum to run on any hardware, but I would love to have desktop compatibility so I can run Dosbox and some older games.
Drivers would help too. We'll see where it takes us.
As soon as I get mine, I will start messing with Fedora or Debian and see if I can get some movies/games running on my TV or my projector

[Aedan]

DOSbox already runs on it, although I've heard the framerates aren't good. Unfortunately the ARM CPU can't execute x86 instructions, so literally everything has to be emulated, whereas on a PC, it doesn't need to emulate x86 instructions.

CEC would be cool, if there was a driver - I'm all for more integration, and having communications abilities with the display would be nice.

[booman]

Hmm, thats bad news for the "gamer" in me!
I really wanted to turn Rasberry Pi into a mini gaming machine.
Guess I'll have to figure out how to run those Android games on it...

[Aedan]

Most Android games are simply running within the Dalvik virtual machine, so they're independent of the underlying OS. Dalvik is pretty similar to Java in many ways, although the actual bytecode is different. I'm pretty sure others have implemented Dalvik VM

The only downside is that the Raspberry Pi is only a 700MHz single core machine, but entry level Android devices are 528MHz-600MHz single core machines. High end Android devices are looking towards 1.2GHz dual core and 1.5GHz quad core processors.

[booman]

I have another idea for Rasberry Pi...
How about a portable firewall?

Hotels, restaurants, the airport... just connect the firewall to the local access point and then wire your laptop to it for full protection from sniffers and snooping users.

[Aedan]

Perhaps a VPN so you know that even "insecure" links are secured?