First Photos and Video of Raspberry Pi Model A 125
coop0030 writes "The first photos and videos of the Model A production samples are now available. The Raspberry Pi Model A is the newest low-cost computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Compared to the popular Model B, the Model A forgoes the Ethernet Controller, has 256MB of RAM, and has a single USB port. A benefit of the missing Ethernet controller is that power consumption is reduced. This allowed them to reach their goals of a low-cost $25 computer. The release date is for sometime early in 2013."
Why? (Score:1, Interesting)
I'd rather see a $45 Pi with more Ram etc.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
goal was always for a $25 computer (Score:4, Insightful)
...except it wasn't.
The goal was to stop the erosion in what is perceived to be "computer skills" and interest in computer science as computing in UK schools had become about "Office" and Consumer computing had become "electronics". In fact the cheap part is in response to computers being expensive and arcane. [from http://www.raspberrypi.org/about%5D [raspberrypi.org]
I personally am convinced that the costs involved in raising the costs slightly to increase "memory" not anything else is incredibly wise. I have used GNU/Linux on little memory and its not fun...and Android seems to have similar requirements.
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I'm not sure that disagrees with what I was saying. But no matter, I agree that a slightly nicer model would be nice. I'm just not upset that they released the one they said they would before working on a fancier one.
I know a lot of people have been making noise about wanting a Model C since the beginning. I imagine they'll get around to it, and then people will gripe that it's either too expensive or not as good as their gaming rig. ;)
Re:goal was always for a $25 computer (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually I'd like a model with Ethernet port and enough RAM but without graphics (that should save a lot of power, too).
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It's going to be pretty hard to cut the GPU out when the CPU is just an afterthought taped to it.
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Actually I'd like a model with Ethernet port ...
According to the referenced Wikipedia article, the new model A (one USB, no Ethernet) has the System-on-a-Chip (SoC)'s USB port go directly to the connector, while in the older model B (two USBs, one Ethernet) it went to a 1:3 hub and the hub drove two USB connectors and an onboard, dongle-style, USB-to-Ethernet chip and connector.
So plug in an external hub and an Ethernet dongle and you get the same functionality as the previous board. (You can also use a hi
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It's a shame to waste 1/8 of your total memory on graphics storage for a headless application. Even if you want to keep graphics support available for debugging purposes, a 640x480x16 resolution is more than enough for that and needs only 150 kB.
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I have used GNU/Linux on a machine with 4MB of memory, and it worked just fine.
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I'd rather see a $45 Pi with more Ram etc.
You can buy a more expensive development board, if you want more ram.
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Re:Why? (Score:4, Informative)
There are a few others in the RPi space now. This board might be more up your alley: Cubieboard [cubieboard.org]
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That page said the product was ready to ship in the last news update in September, but the order page still says preorder. Might be interesting if a US or European distributor picks it up. The only advantage of this over similarly priced Chinese "A10" tablets is the I/O pins.
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It is shipping the first batch. Users have apparently shown unboxing videos and the like. The preorders are for the next batch.
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And to teachers who have to find money for thirty of them.
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I don't understand the point of getting Raspberry Pi with its ancient CPU. For ~50$ (including shipping from China) you can get mk808, which has:
1GB RAM/8GB flash
Dual core 1.2GHz Cortex A9 CPU (RK3066)
MicroSD/USB/HDMI/Built-in Wi-Fi
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AIUI the problem is that while the SoC theoreticallly supports 1 gigabyte of ram noone actually makes an 8 gigabit* chip that is compatible with the memory interface on the SoC they are using.
I suspect that at some point there will be a second gen Pi with a different SoC, a newer memory technology and more memory but I wouldn't expect it any time soon.
*Don't ask me why system memory is typically measured in gigabytes while memory chips are measured in gigabits but that seems to be the way things are.
$15 Pi (Score:4, Insightful)
More interesting is a $15 Pi with lower HW specs [wikipedia.org] : no audio; no serial (only 1 USB, like Model A); no HDMI (only VGA) or even no video. But also integrated wireless mesh, preferably a snapin daughtercard for either Bluetooth, Zigbee, or even WiFi.
The purpose of these devices is to bootstrap British youth Computer Science education. That education better focus on networked distributed computing, preferably wireless for mobile or just ubiquity. Only one of the machines on the network needs better specs, for human interface. The rest should interface to the many things we have to make smart.
I personally would buy thousands of those low spec devices each year. I'm sure there's a market for hundreds of millions, probably many billion of them. Though most of that market will probably be served by stickon, postage-stamp sized devices powered by ambient (heat, light, flexing) energy and cost under $1, we have to get there steadily. I don't know why Chinese exporters aren't selling Model A and Model B for under $20 already (they're $80+), and a $10- Model C stripped down from there.
ARMv6 (Score:1, Insightful)
It's 2012, 2013 in about 400 hours. ARMv6 and just one USB2.0 port, which isn't even working right. You have got to be kidding.
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If you're still comparing yourself to an Arduino, then you really need to get your head out of your ass and see what's available. Of course that's assuming you're not in the same demographic that finds using $30 boards to blink some LEDs empowering.
Re:ARMv6 (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, you can get Arduino clones for a lot less than that...
You can even make one yourself. Solder a $3 chip to a piece of perfboard and write "Arduino" on it. It'll work just the same.
The official $30 Arduino is for people who want their voltage regulators, USB interface, etc. all on a single board. Apparently that's a lot of people...
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If you're still comparing yourself to an Arduino, then you really need to get your head out of your ass and see what's available. Of course that's assuming you're not in the same demographic that finds using $30 boards to blink some LEDs empowering.
For what it's worth, my 7 year old does indeed find programming flashing LEDs from a Python script incredibly empowering. And he's exactly the target audience for Raspberry Pi, too.
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What Slashdot reader ISNT in that demographic ? We're all nerds for crying out loud. Most of us HAVE DONE this.
STFU already /.; everybody knows and nobody cares! (Score:1, Insightful)
STFU already about Raspberry Pi, at least until the A model is actually available; everybody knows and nobody cares!
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I ordered one from Newark last week, got it three? days later. It showed out of stock when I ordered.
It's the newer model with 512MB RAM and screw holes (whoever fucked that up in the first place... it's mind boggling)... but it's not made in the UK. Not sure what that's about, I thought they were supposed to be now.
I wanted to design a shield, but it appears there are no technical drawings of the thing. No drawing showing how far the mounting holes are from GPIO pin 1 and whatnot, just simple stuff like th
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It's the newer model with 512MB RAM and screw holes (whoever fucked that up in the first place... it's mind boggling)... but it's not made in the UK. Not sure what that's about, I thought they were supposed to be now.
Some of them are, some of them aren't. There have been multiple reports of the recently Chinese manufactured Pi's having questionable soldering and reliability problems. See here: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=22473 [raspberrypi.org] and http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=24571 [raspberrypi.org]
Re:Availability. (Score:4, Insightful)
If you have a PDP-11 why do you want a raspberry-pi?
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I've been trying to reduce my power bill.
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I see that there are emulators around [dbit.com] so maybe you could retain your software and retire the hardware (in the summer, anyway).
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That emulator is proprietary, but this one http://simh.trailing-edge.com/ [trailing-edge.com] isn't, and emulates a couple of dozen different minicomputers. Seems like a good candidate for porting to the RasPi.
256 is not enough (Score:5, Interesting)
They should have waited until they could get the cost down with 512MB of RAM. Having used both the 256 and 512 Model B, I found that no amount of tweaking could make the 256 model run a web browser acceptably on a Linux desktop. Modern Linux desktops and browsers have gotten too bloated. LXDE is painfully slow, while KDE and gnome desktops are just downright unable. The 512 model has no such issue.
Re:256 is not enough (Score:4, Insightful)
Low-cost computer, not general-purpose desktop-replacement.
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Low-cost computer, not general-purpose desktop-replacement.
First statement on the FAQ [raspberrypi.org]:
It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video.
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It still does not say desktop replacement. It says it can be used for some of the things you would do with a desktop, that is a big difference from saying it can replace your desktop.
My 256meg Pi runs XBMC great, it surprised the heck out of me. But that was not what I bought it for and is not what I use it for so it was just an added bonus.
I will be buying one of the new 512 Model B boards to be a media player for sure.
I might get a model A board to use for an embedded application as I do not really need a
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Exactly. It says nothing about "modern" bloated desktop environments. I have an old desktop computer that I use as a print server, and it crawls with lxde or xfce, but it is perfectly usable with something like fvwm or fluxbox, and runs gnumeric and abiword perfectly fine, as well as most games that are available in linux. I don't know if it plays HD video, I never tried it. It has 512 MB, but memory is almost never a problem, usually about half of that is free anyway.
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It's got HDMI, so it's expected to run a GUI with applications, especially after the RaPi-Foundation showed off Linux desktops in their promotional videos. Even the stated purposes of teaching programmers requires that you can look up documentation, which means there has got to be a working web browser. There are also cheaper systems with much lower power consumption if you don't need a display, and much more powerful systems if you want a low cost Linux desktop.
They've also said that you wouldn't expect to use the model A for the same purposes you use model B. Seriously; what better way to debug something than to plug it to a display? And how does HDMI force you to use a GUI? When has learning programming required a web browser?
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When has learning programming required a web browser?
Sadly, there are many who read Slashdot who think of themselves as 'web programmers.' Its just how things are these days.
Real programmers don't always program in Assembly Language, but they can map their projects down to that level when necessary.
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Real programmers don't always program directly in opcodes, but they can map their projects down to that level when necessary.
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GUI runs great in 256.
XBMC plays great video.
Debian runs Chrome, Abiword and Gnumeric and they are fast.
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Its not the desktop environment its just that browsers even with a few tabs open would like about 300Mb to function properly.
Chose a lighter weight browser or get aggressive with cutting back your browsers memory usage.
Both Debian and Arch's minimum requirements are 64Mb and you should be able to get it using less.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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IIRC it's x86 only and based on an aincient version of debian, i'm not sure i'd want to let such a thing near the internet.
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Instead of using Linux which is unfit for the RPi, you'd be better off running RISC OS, which has a full web browser that I assume runs super-fast.
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Quick access to BASIC too, which makes it ideal to get programming on.
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For sufficiently small definitions of "full web browser"
Netsurf runs pretty fast under linux too, the trouble is website compatibility is pretty poor.
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They should have waited until they could get the cost down with 512MB of RAM. Having used both the 256 and 512 Model B, I found that no amount of tweaking could make the 256 model run a web browser acceptably on a Linux desktop.
Huh? My 256MB Pi runs a web browser perfectly...
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They should have waited until they could get the cost down with 512MB of RAM. Having used both the 256 and 512 Model B, I found that no amount of tweaking could make the 256 model run a web browser acceptably on a Linux desktop. Modern Linux desktops and browsers have gotten too bloated. LXDE is painfully slow, while KDE and gnome desktops are just downright unable. The 512 model has no such issue.
I don't think the PI is really meant as a desktop replacement, but if you want to browse the web in 256 MB:
No gnome, no KDE. A bare-bones window manager. It is not as if gnome/kde is needed for browsing the web anyway, I use neither and that is on a powerful pc.
Also, use lightweight browser. lynx perhaps, or dillo if you have to have graphics. No plugins!
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You don't need a desktop environment to use Linux for specialty applications because those can avoid using a DE entirely.
Want a "desktop"? Buy the ITX combo of your choice and be happy.
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I don't know what you're trying to do but both Midori and Chrome run just fine on 256mb.
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+eleventy, Retarded
This post made my day, I can walk around with a smile now, thanks!
Pointless change, more or less (Score:2)
one word (Score:1)
Mk802iii much more powerful and cheaper than the raspberry pi
+1 (Score:1)
Re:Ummmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting. I saw a post just like yours when the Raspberry Pi was first announced. End result was demand was so high it was quite difficult to get. We'll see how it pans out this time.
Re:Ummmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ummmmm... (Score:4, Informative)
Lower power requirements. A lot of embedded device people don't care about the RAM and the ethernet. Who'd like to drag a network cable in their little robot?
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EVERYBODY wants more RAM. It's universal among software programmers. As an embedded person myself, let me just say: Give me RAM or give me death.
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And why would anyone choose this model over B, with twice the ram, Ethernet, and a second USB port for a measly 10$ savings?
Not everybody is a spoiled first-world brat whose daddy pays for everything...?
Jesus Pop politics (Score:1, Offtopic)
Not everybody is a spoiled first-world brat whose daddy pays for everything...?
Except this is a first world problem that this is designed to solve, Computers becoming to expensive to tinker with and the rise of consoles/dedicated electronics over General Purpose computers. The UK is still the first world.
Quite frankly I'm a little tired of the lie that I can't complain because if I'm not dying of hunger, or my first priory is not getting clean water. The sad fact is I suspect that those never been your problem either.
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The real first-world problem is lack of imagination. I can imagine scenarios where people would want one, why can't anybody else? (apparently...)
eg. I might design/build an embedded gadget using my desktop Model B Pi but when I want to deploy it it won't need Ethernet, USB or ability to run 3 desktop apps simultaneously. Why should I pay $10 extra for things that will never be used? $10 her, $10 there, it adds up over time (or real fast if I want to deploy 100 of them...)
And that's a first-world scenario...
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That's still cost basis.
No mention of the fact that this unit is smaller, lighter, and uses less power too.
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I'm just positing an example. I'm sure there's plenty more.
I don't think it's smaller though, it's the same PCB...
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How does the developed world lack imagination? It's producing these devices, and generating the demand for them, and using them in the applications. Indeed most innovation comes from outside the third world. Yes, third worlders are busier just surviving, but the developed world is supplying plenty of imagination.
Your post was sent from the developed world, and shows plenty of imagination.
Now, I won't disagree that plenty of developed worlders are idiots without imagination. But they've outsourced it to peop
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How does the developed world lack imagination?
Not the 'world', the people who always come on Slashdot posting about how if they don't want something it has no right to exist.
Re:Ummmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Because they:
1. Don't care much about that difference
and
2. Buy lots of them in which case it's a saving of not 10$ but 30% - and that's a lot.
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Why would anyone choose to use an ATTiny microcontroller over an ATMega with 4 times the ram, 8 times the I/O capability, multi port analogue to digital conversions, interfaces for UART, SPI, TWI etc, for a measly $1.50 savings?
There's much more to a device than cost. So far every application of a Raspberry Pi (despite what the makers showed with their lovely full Linux desktop displays) has NOT been a general purpose computer. Typically I've seen these used as a small embedded platform. In many cases the s
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You're right. Please send me your $36.50 ATMega version.
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Why do i get the feeling you've missed the point...
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Because you're not paying attention.
Natural Environment (Score:4, Funny)
Can we please get some photos of the Raspberry Pi in its natural environment; sitting unused, covered in dust on some hipster-geek's shelf?
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Unfortunately that is the same story for mine too. It's less a lack of motivation & more of a lack of free time that has hamstrung my efforts.
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Lego frame ... nice.
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I just wish the idiots would stop calling it a supercomputer. I don't belive that such exaggeration does the community any favors.
To those demanding 512MB (Score:1)
To those demanding 512MB, you're a treadmill consumer, not a real programmer.
raspberry pi is supposed to be like the C64/spectrum 8 bit era computers.
the reason these 8bit machines lasted 15+ years, is because programmers eventually learned to break the rules and extend the functionality of the systems far beyond the hardware designers ever conceived. I disagreed with the foundation extending the B model to 512MB as it sets it apart on an upgrade treadmill course, rather than a, develop badass low level cod
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I've learned, at this point in my life, that the fact that not everyone shares my point of view is a good thing; if everyone saw things my way, they'd all write their own code, instead of paying me to do so.
Nah, that's not them. (Score:2)
The people here asking for 512MB are the the rich kids whose parents bought them ...
Nah.
They're the people who want to plug in an off-the-shelf distro and get the project done in a couple weeks.
Re:I don't know about anyone else (Score:5, Insightful)
I bought one and I'm sick and fucking tired of hearing about it. I don't want to hear one more fucking thing until ICS or later is running on it, personally, since that was the news that got me to buy one, and then they never released it, and Liz never adequately explained why.
Raspberry Pi serves as a reminder to the community as to why we still need electronics companies. Apparently, we are not yet capable of producing and delivering a product this complex without doing it badly, even with all the support you could ever hope for from the vendor.
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plenty of people working on that port, you're just whining because open source volunteers aren't working to YOUR schedule? hint for you, don't buy hardware for software that isn't released yet.
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plenty of people working on that port, you're just whining because open source volunteers aren't working to YOUR schedule?
No, I'm complaining. Whining is a matter of tone.
hint for you, don't buy hardware for software that isn't released yet.
Yes. That's what I said.
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I see raspberry pies running Debian linux just fine. buy one, plenty of useful software for it, don't need any android to get something useful done
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I ordered one about 3 weeks ago from Newark and it arrived in a week. Their site said it was out of stock but I did get one. I suspect they have a revolving outage. Even if they didn't, its only $35. If that breaks the bank then you shouldn't be playing.