10k Raspberry Pi Units Available In December 123
An anonymous reader writes "A tweet appeared from Raspberry Pi stating the launch of the $25 PC wasn't happening in November as expected. So I decided to investigate further and contacted Raspberry Pi to see what was going on. Eben Upton was kind enough to email me back and give us some good and bad news. The bad news is: we aren't getting the $25 PC this month as expected. But that's where the bad news ends, as it is still arriving in 2011 for some people. Eben confirmed that an order has been placed for 10,000 units, but they won't arrive until the end of November. That means we will see Raspberry Pi go up for sale in December, but it won't be a typical 'get as many out the door as you can' launch. Those first 10k are earmarked for programmers as software is desperately required before a full consumer launch." Update: Apparently some of the details about the production of units and who can get one from the first batch have changed. Raspberry Pi has updated their front page with the latest information.
Re:I want more than an arduino(s) (Score:5, Insightful)
The GPIO expansion ports have been intentionally made difficult to access on the Pi (to eliminate risk of accidentally plugging in something that makes it unhappy is the claim, but probably the real reason is that easy physical access to the ports would more rapidly piss off those who buy it and realize the BCM2835 datasheet isn't available unless you're a megacorporation or an ex-employee like Eben is.) Heck, the product page on Broadcom's website for this device is nothing but a marketing blurb. Anyone familiar with Broadcom's history with open source is not going to be surprised by this - it's typical classic Broadcom.
If you want to do embedded computing work and not just have a set-top-box without a case - look at the new BeagleBone. It's more expensive, but with a significantly faster CPU (same clock speed, but the Cortex-A8 does much better than the ARM11 IPC-wise) and the I/O is brought out to standard 0.1" pin headers. In addition, it takes 20 seconds on Google to find the AM3358's product page, which immediately gives you an internal block diagram of the chip, and the full TRM (datasheet) for the chip is right near the top of the page.
_NOT_ the end of Arduino? (Score:4, Insightful)
This product is no more suitable for microcontroller applications than an eee-pc.
Arduino's appeal is that of low level electronic access. It can take voltage readings or output PWM and digital voltage signals. More advanced projects use serial or I2C communication with peripherals but it is all really low level access. As they say, Arduino is for physical computing.
Raspberry Pi is meant to be an inexpensive computer.... an application platform where the primary input and output are a keyboard and a monitor.
They may both be small, green, and electronic, but they are no more competitors than donuts are to potato (starchy brown food?).
Re:Obligatory question (Score:4, Insightful)
How the fuck was it easier to write a comment than to fucking Google it [lmgtfy.com]? And how is there always some asshat who does this every single story?
Re:I want more than an arduino(s) (Score:4, Insightful)
Not sure where the hate is coming from here. I totally agree Beaglebone is a very neat product for people with a bit more cash and no need to drive a display.
And ex-employee? My badge didn't let me in the car park this morning, so maybe you know something I don't :)
Eben
Raspberry Pi Foundation