4 ms·

Inside the Raspberry Pi: The story of the $35 computer that changed the world

31 points by matt2000 8y ago

freedomben 8y ago
I bought one of the first Raspberry Pi model Bs, before Raspbian was even around. The device blew my mind. Sure it was super slow, barely ran a UI (tho it did work!), and didn't have a lot of tutorials and learning resources, but it had an RCA jack and USB, so if you had at least a TV within 20 years old (available for $5 at almost any second hand store) and a mouse/keyboard, you had a computer for next to nothing! It also had HDMI as well for convenience. I do wish they'd bring back the RCA jack, but I'm sure they didn't remove it without good reason. I think it's easy to get excited about the cool things we cool do with the pi, and I do. But remembering how unbelievably well they nailed their original mission of creating a low cost hackable computer that kids and students could afford. Something to teach the next generation who won't have access to the early Home PCs that we did, which were very accessible. Try tinkering with your laptop these days and you'll see how badly the world needs the Raspberry Pi.
- gruturo 8y ago
  If I’m not wrong the composite video out is still there in the newer pi’s. It’s one of the pins in the headphone jack, even in the latest models.
brutus1213 8y ago
This was a very nice read. I was hoping it was going to be a book chapter .. I really want more details on the process behind producing the Pis. I've been an electronic hobbyist for years .. I feel there is no way I could build the first version of the Pi today. I wish there was a detailed book on how each part of the Pi works. It boggles my mind that just 6 volunteers did this ... they had the right stuff indeed. I've been playing with FPGAs to learn details of hardware. I guess I have yet to make the leap on how to build something where I can boot up a primitive linux distro on (with graphics and a network stack). The biggest annoyance with FPGAs is their use of proprietary blocks .. makes it very hard to see inside. Graphics seems to be the worst black box. Even playing with a bunch of ARM-M boards has yielded limit success for me. Guess I will continue to dream and fiddle :)
vardump 8y ago
So how many RPIs are hiding in your closets? I think I've got 3x RPI1B, 2x RPI2B, 2x RPI3B, 2x RPI3B+. Amazing little machines! I do wish RPI4 gets USB-C ports. Well, USB3 would do. I'd also love to have another board with very low power requirements, even less than RPI zeros. Something between Arduino/ESP8266/ESP32/etc. and RPI zero, but can still run Linux. Like ARM Cortex M7 or similar. Mash one or two ultra low power M0/M1 (so that main core can be completely switched off for low power while remaining active), advanced DMA/DSP engine (like IMX SDMA (NXP?) or TI PRU), lots of reconfigurable IO (fast GPIO, I2C, I2S, (wide) SPI@80MHz+, ADCs, USB 2.0 device/host, bluetooth, wifi, 100M ethernet MAC etc.). Oh and some digital display interface would be nice as well, it's not nice to connect displays to SPI or worse, I2C. 1 MB SRAM and maybe 16 kB low power SRAM, shared with M0. 16-128 MB low power DRAM. You should be able to fine grain power off any and all of the components, even DRAM and SRAM (except for that 16 kB shared between M0 and M7). Oh, and can I get it tomorrow? ;)

31 points by matt2000 8y ago

I bought one of the first Raspberry Pi model Bs, before Raspbian was even around. The device blew my mind. Sure it was super slow, barely ran a UI (tho it did work!), and didn't have a lot of tutorials and learning resources, but it had an RCA jack and USB, so if you had at least a TV within 20 years old (available for $5 at almost any second hand store) and a mouse/keyboard, you had a computer for next to nothing! It also had HDMI as well for convenience. I do wish they'd bring back the RCA jack, but I'm sure they didn't remove it without good reason. I think it's easy to get excited about the cool things we cool do with the pi, and I do. But remembering how unbelievably well they nailed their original mission of creating a low cost hackable computer that kids and students could afford. Something to teach the next generation who won't have access to the early Home PCs that we did, which were very accessible. Try tinkering with your laptop these days and you'll see how badly the world needs the Raspberry Pi.

gruturo 8y ago
If I’m not wrong the composite video out is still there in the newer pi’s. It’s one of the pins in the headphone jack, even in the latest models.

brutus1213 8y ago

This was a very nice read. I was hoping it was going to be a book chapter .. I really want more details on the process behind producing the Pis. I've been an electronic hobbyist for years .. I feel there is no way I could build the first version of the Pi today. I wish there was a detailed book on how each part of the Pi works. It boggles my mind that just 6 volunteers did this ... they had the right stuff indeed. I've been playing with FPGAs to learn details of hardware. I guess I have yet to make the leap on how to build something where I can boot up a primitive linux distro on (with graphics and a network stack). The biggest annoyance with FPGAs is their use of proprietary blocks .. makes it very hard to see inside. Graphics seems to be the worst black box. Even playing with a bunch of ARM-M boards has yielded limit success for me. Guess I will continue to dream and fiddle :)

vardump 8y ago

So how many RPIs are hiding in your closets? I think I've got 3x RPI1B, 2x RPI2B, 2x RPI3B, 2x RPI3B+. Amazing little machines! I do wish RPI4 gets USB-C ports. Well, USB3 would do. I'd also love to have another board with very low power requirements, even less than RPI zeros. Something between Arduino/ESP8266/ESP32/etc. and RPI zero, but can still run Linux. Like ARM Cortex M7 or similar. Mash one or two ultra low power M0/M1 (so that main core can be completely switched off for low power while remaining active), advanced DMA/DSP engine (like IMX SDMA (NXP?) or TI PRU), lots of reconfigurable IO (fast GPIO, I2C, I2S, (wide) SPI@80MHz+, ADCs, USB 2.0 device/host, bluetooth, wifi, 100M ethernet MAC etc.). Oh and some digital display interface would be nice as well, it's not nice to connect displays to SPI or worse, I2C. 1 MB SRAM and maybe 16 kB low power SRAM, shared with M0. 16-128 MB low power DRAM. You should be able to fine grain power off any and all of the components, even DRAM and SRAM (except for that 16 kB shared between M0 and M7). Oh, and can I get it tomorrow? ;)