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What is the reason the Raspberry Pi is not open at a lower level? Is it because the Raspberry Pi foundation is shipping a premade chip package, or do they run t
by j-james 6y ago
What is the reason the Raspberry Pi is not open at a lower level? Is it because the Raspberry Pi foundation is shipping a premade chip package, or do they run their own software and have their own reasons for keeping it closed?
Also, what does this closed-off lower level hinder or prevent?
- segmondy 6y agowill probably get cloned and sold at a discounted rate undercutting the foundation
- chungus_khan 6y agoI can't speak specifically to the raspberry pi, but generally SOCs like it uses do work like that. Most customers are concerned with the chip's high-level capabilities and actively don't want to touch the lower-level stuff, as it's irrelevant to what they're making.
- pabs3 6y agoProbably they are constrained by their choice of using Broadcom SoCs, which happened because the project was started by Broadcom employees.
- MisterTea 6y ago> What is the reason the Raspberry Pi is not open at a lower level? Broadcom. Much of the Raspberry pi lower level software has been closed since its inception as Broadcom will not publicly release specs.