Raspberry Pi's $25 Model A Hits Production Line 105
hypnosec writes "The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced that the cheaper variant of the Raspberry Pi — the Model A — has entered production phase. Model A of the credit-card sized computer has been stripped of its Ethernet port and a USB port, leaving just one USB port. This model comes with 256MB RAM, but as it is less complex compared to its predecessor it will consume less power, thus opening up quite a few new usage scenarios. The Foundation has posted the first image of the $25 Model A on its site and noted 'We're anticipating that those of you who buy the Model A will be using it for different applications from Model B owners.'"
Re:Refresher (Score:5, Insightful)
The plan was for the B to be released first as the intial release was aimed at early adoptors and developers, the model A would then follow soon afterwards.
However that was back when they throught demand for the Pi would be in the tens of thousands. With the manufacturing partners scrambling to meet demand (and being frustrated by SoC lead times) they did not want to divert SoCs away from model B production to model A production.
Now that the situation is starting to improve and stabalise they are finally bringing up the model A production (though how long it will be before they are readilly available is anyones guess).
Re:Cool but SLOOOOOOW (Score:5, Insightful)
Hey, I picked up a microUSB 5V wall-wart supply for $9.99 at the local equivalent of Walmart and just used an old Class 4 SD card I had laying about so my $94 Raspberry Pi only cost me $44.99.
Actually I lie -- I had to buy an HDMI cable and I can't find a spare ethernet cable either so I'll have to fork out some more cash.
But come to think of it -- neither my DVD player nor my TV came with an HDMI and my PC didn't come with a network cable so I guess that no matter what you buy, there are always "essential extras" to factor in.
And my Pi didn't come with a mouse or keyboard either -- what's with that?? :D
Re:Too little too late? (Score:4, Insightful)
It also lacks HDMI.... Nobody really cares about how open this board is except for the few loudmouths on this site. The fact that the boards sell out so quick is proof.
THIS is why you buy a Raspberry Pi... (Score:4, Insightful)
Tinkering and coming up with cool (if impractical) uses... and quite frankly, that's what computing has lost over the years... Doing strange crap with the user port of your C-64 was damn fun, IMNSHO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5npkz0xY1fo [youtube.com]
Thanks to the Pi for bringing that tinkering fun back....
Re:Too little too late? (Score:5, Insightful)
Completely different markets. The RP is NOT a microcontroller. It is not an Arduino. It is a full ARM computer (albeit a slow one compared to what you have on your desk). It's as if you ripped out the motherboard from your phone or tablet and made it more hacker friendly.
Where you have some overlap is the RP gives pinouts for connecting some hardware, but the way you talk to that hardware is completely different.
And when you talk about the RP having more RAM, I should put that into perspective. The Discovery board has 192kB. The RP has 256MB. These aren't even close to being the same class of device, much less the same market. Read the article ... can you see the one you linked to bring used as a media center? Of course not, it's an absurd idea.
There's plenty of market for the model A. If anything, the model B had taken up a lot of that market (only ten bucks more and you get Ethernet, one more USB, and more RAM).
Openness really doesn't matter to the RP's target market. If you're working on a microcontroller, your goal is to eventually move beyond the prototype stage and make a product. Openness matters in that case. But the RP isn't a prototype board (though it could be used as one). Instead, it's the product, already finished for you (just add a case and power supply). Openness matters a bit when it comes to drivers and access to SPI and whatnot, but the documentation for that is available, and I've yet to hear any complaints.