7 ms·
The part that's suspicious is the $25 price point (the BeagleBoard is $125, the BeagleBone is $90, the Gumstix is $150-$250 depending on configuration). How m
by kvermeer 15y ago
The part that's suspicious is the $25 price point (the BeagleBoard is $125, the BeagleBone is $90, the Gumstix is $150-$250 depending on configuration). How many products can you name for under $50 (2x the cost of the Raspberry Pi) that approach its specs and capabilities? Also, they're aiming for user-friendliness to the point where it is supposed to be an educational product for young people.
These are both really, really hard to do. The foundation seems to be approaching this goal fairly well; if it is vaporware they have documented it quite well indeed. Having volunteers like their director and trustee Eben, who is an architect at Broadcomm, and trustee and operations director Pete, who is the managing director of a PCB manufacturer, can't hurt on getting this thing spec'ed out. Whether or not those relationships will last once this gets rolling is the shaky part.
Don't get me wrong, the team seems like a great group of people, and I trust them to have good intentions. However, I don't give anything approaching trust to Broadcomm.
- beagle3 15y agoActually ... Roku has something with similar specs for $50 retail (which means they sell it to retailers at $30 at most). And Apple has something called "AppleTV", which has a little more hardware on it (wifi, power supply, ir remote receiver + remote, 8GB of flash), and sells for $90.
- joezydeco 15y agoMy hunch is that the final price will be something slightly more, or else Broadcom is going to subsidize the project to some degree. They're already easying buyers into the idea of a $35 "Model B" version that has the ethernet magnetics on it and more memory etc.
- wzdd 15y agoThe tplink wr703n is a 400mhz MIPS computer with a USB port, an Ethernet port, and wireless networking which sells for about $20 (on volumerates.com, which is unfortunately down at the moment). It has a completely functional Linux port and is supported by OpenWRT. Not as fast, and fewer peripherals than the Raspberry Pi, but an indication that the $25 price point on the pi is doable, I think.
- polshaw 15y agoThanks for mentioning that, very interesting. Link for the lazy: http://www.volumerates.com/product/genuine-tp-link-tl-wr703n-150m-11n-mini-wifi-wireless-router-for-instant-wifi-connection-99273 http://www.volumerates.com/product/genuine-tp-link-tl-wr703n... The 32MB of ram restricts the applications quite a bit unfortunately. Amazing to think the impact of these low-cost computers.. goodbye expensive routers, NAS, set top boxes, PVRs, media centres. It can't be too long before they (ARM devices) start eating into the low end laptop market.
- joshu 15y agoif that had just a BIT more flash I would be all over that.