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Ask HN: Why can't the Raspberry Pi be properly cloned?
Since the earliest days of the PC. companies having been creating clone computers.
There's big money for whoever can identically clone the functionality of a popular computer - witness Compaq.
Is it "hard but doable by appropriately skilled modern engineers", or "impossible"?
Surely the rewards are there for whichever company can do it properly.
So why is there no proper clone of the Raspberry Pi?
- detaro 5y agoBecause Broadcom won't sell anybody else the processor, and nobody who can make chips is going to waste their time and incur the legal risk of cloning some weird Broadcom SoCs when they could instead do something more sensible. And the only reason people would buy a Pi clone would be if it was better value for money, so now they also have to beat a quite cheap product in price.
- snom380 5y agoI was under the impression that RPI chose "stock" Broadcom SoCs for their boards that, but the main problem with Broadcom is that they won't speak to you unless you have a substantial enough order?
- detaro 5y agoAs far as I know the current SoCs are special-made for RPi, but even when it was a stock part they didn't sell to other companies that wanted to make SBCs with them - some tried.
- joezydeco 5y agoThe BCM2835 was a chip designed for set-top video boxes but turned out to be a loser. RPi was started by a Broadcom engineer that found a use for the chip.
- hvgk 5y agoThere are a bunch of clones out there.
- andrewstuart 5y agoNone of them are compatible.
- hvgk 5y agoIf you want compatibility buy another board or embedded system. The BCM SoC on it can’t be bought so you’re screwed for second sourcing anything.
- andrewstuart 5y agoThe software support for all other SBC's is universally terrible. They're Linux support is always questionable, incomplete, out of date, poorly documented etc etc. If software matters then the only real choice is Raspberry Pi.
- hvgk 5y agoThere are good ones. They just cost real money. Which is the issue.
- boring_twenties 5y agoWhat do you mean by that? Isn't the Pine64 stuff supported by mainline Linux?
- techdragon 5y agoMuch of it is mainline, yes. So I’m thinking they expect x86 like compatibly.
- pwg 5y agoOne aspect to keep in mind. In those "earliest days" the target that was being cloned was the IBM PC, which Wikipedia [1] quotes as having an introductory price of $4,455 in 2020 dollars. Wikipedia also quotes a price range of $4.00 to $70.00 [2] for various Pi model introductory prices (they don't quote as "2020 dollars"). There is much more room for profit available to someone who is cloning a $4,455 product than there is to someone cloning a $4 to $70 product. The comparative very low price of a Pi vs. an IBM PC from 1981 likely makes it not profitable to "clone" and so no one is attempting to clone the Pi's. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi
- joezydeco 5y agoWhat magical thing is in Raspberry Pi that cloning it would be an advantage over other Linux SBCs/SOMs or EVKs like Beagle? Oh wait I know the answer - the price. You want it cheaper. But it's already subsidized by Broadcom so how do you think a cloner would make any money off of it? Or are you trying to use it in a product and you need a second source? Because that way leads to doom as well.
- andrewstuart 5y agoThe software.
- joezydeco 5y agoOkay, let's continue that line of thought. So there must be some special software/firmware that only runs on RPi and a cloner could take advantage of that work when selling their board. What software would that be?
- evv555 5y agoLinux distributions with large enough ecosystems to smooth out the rough edges.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- vimy 5y agoWhy does Broadcom subsidize Raspberry Pi?
- schappim 5y agoIt provides Broadcom with value by making Linux distros stable on their chips.
- schappim 5y ago
- tony-allan 5y agoThis isn't really a space where anyone is attempting to beat the already competitive price point of the Raspberry Pi. Most similar boards are created with their own vision such as faster storage or more networking but at different price points. These include the PINE A64-LTS, Orange Pi 4B, or BeagleBone. This market also includes many carrier boards for the Raspberry Pi compute module (3 or 4). For example the Turing Pi V2 mini-ITX cluster board with four Raspberry Pi CM4 modules!
- opless 5y agoIt was. By odroid. However Broadcom didn't appear to like where/how they sourced the components and refused to sell them any more chips. https://hackaday.com/2014/07/30/a-real-raspberry-pi-clone-not-inspired-by/ https://hackaday.com/2014/07/30/a-real-raspberry-pi-clone-no...
- pyb 5y agoPresumably, Any company could clone the Pi, but they'd never be able to compete on price. It would be great for industrial uses if someone made a pricier, but more readily available clone.
- pyb 5y agoIt would also be great if they could cut deals with "pro" electronics distributors here in Europe. None of their current distributors are able to ship very fast.