First Run of Raspberry Pi Boards To Be Completed Feb 20th

An anonymous reader writes "Raspberry Pi has confirmed the first batch of $35 PCs will be constructed on February 20. They've also coaxed Broadcom into releasing the datasheet for the board. Apparently the company hit a snag with the quartz crystal package so there was a manufacturing delay, but it's since been resolved and things are on schedule for later this month." From the announcements: "Eben and I may be going to China to make sure that the boards can be brought up properly for that date if necessary. We’ll be airfreighting them to the UK immediately, so you should be able to buy them before the end of the month."

Not constructed - Completed

[The Jynx]

Raspberry Pi has confirmed the first batch of $35 PCs will be constructed on February 20

To save any ambiguity, the actual release says:

The good news is that this finally means we have a date for the first batch: the boards will be finished on February 20

Re:Hot damn, it's about time

[stevenvi]

Read up on it for more information. This is my understanding of it:

• The Model A (128 MB RAM, no ethernet port) is $25
• The Model B (256 MB RAM, ethernet port) is $35

The first run is of the Model B, as they anticipate more people are interested in that set of hardware. Their FAQ [raspberrypi.org] likely provides more in-depth information that what I have provided here.

Re:Who cares?

[ledow]

Troll, but:

Don't have a TomTom then?
Or one of the thousands of set-top boxes that use it?
Don't have a TV from a big-name manufacturer (e.g. Sony to name one) with media capabilities?
Don't have a Kindle?
Don't have an Android phone?

Seems to me that Sony, Kindle, Android, TomTom are all big-names and all in the consumer market where almost everyone has at least one themselves, or certainly know someone with one. That's without even trying to dig for more information, too.

P.S. How's Windows Phone coming along?

Re:Are they going to make cases?

[Anonymous Coward]

Already some great cases proposed here

http://www.raspberrypiforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9

Re:sheepish question

[chill]

Quoting user shirro from the Raspberry Pi comments [raspberrypi.org]:

Quartz crystals provide a clock signal that regulates all the other components. They utilize the mechanical resonance of the crystal to produce a stable electrical oscillator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator [wikipedia.org]

Digital circuits such as microprocessors have delays in processing and moving data about and a clock is required to regulate the system so that data is not read before it is available. Different parts move at different speeds and the master clock is divided down to appropriate rates for each component of the system.

Re:sheepish question

[JoeMerchant]

Quartz crystals for geeks 101:

Quartz crystals are the basis of reliable, relatively frequency stable oscillators. They are at the heart of most every computer system of any size or complexity (yes, some use RC oscillators, others use more exotic stuff, but, we're talking the 99% here...)

Without a reliable time source, you cannot do asynchronous serial communications and any number of other things that require your computer to have the same sense of time as another computer it is attempting to talk to.

These same crystals are also at the frequency basis for many radio systems for similar reasons, except in the radio realm the crystals can be used to control the radio frequency for transmitters and receivers to lock to each other without much tuning fuss.

Extra geek points if you remember the crystal color combinations to make Sleestak repellent noise (from Land of the Lost).

Re:Hot damn, it's about time

[Vairon]

They're only making them in batches of 10,000 so I don't think there's a risk of them over producing giving their current demand. If the number of people subscribed to the mailing list and raspberry pi forums is any indication of interest they will easily sell several 10,000 lots this year. Many people, myself included are interested in buying multiple of these devices each.

If you compare the $50 roku to the $35 raspberry pi, the $50 roku contains no ethernet port, no usb port and no SD card. It also only support 720P instead of the 1080P the raspberry PI supports. The $35 raspberry pi has more hardware features and is $15 less expensive than the $50 roku. The $50 roku does come with a remote control and free shipping which the $35 raspberry pi does not have.