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The Rasberry Pi is the perfect board for a new CS student as it is powerful enough to do almost anything a regular linux server would be normally used for (NAS,

by tesmar2 14y ago

The Rasberry Pi is the perfect board for a new CS student as it is powerful enough to do almost anything a regular linux server would be normally used for (NAS, Print Server, Web Server) and cheap enough for a starving student to afford. Plus it keeps the students away from playing games as it is too slow to be fun.

eckyptang 14y ago
Yes it costs only 8 pints for a massively powerful computing platform. I remember paying 45 pints for a calculator at university (TI 85). (pints of cheap lager that is).
- iRobot 14y ago
  Oh to be back in the home country where a pint only costs 1/8th of a Raspberry Pi..
- tesmar2 14y ago
  An 83 is the first machine I programmed on and I think it's still a great tool to start with because of its portability. The Pi is nice because of projects like this article mentioned.
- samstave 14y ago
  Measuring costs of hardware in beer brings a whole new twist to "free as in beer"
- happycube 14y ago
  The sad bit is the ti calcs haven't gotten any cheaper. Monopoly rent, anyone?
  - eckyptang 14y ago
    And? Why should they. They have an eternal shelf life and it's not like their functionality becomes obsolete every two years. For ref I paid 25GBP for an NSpire CAS - just don't buy new.
    - jgeralnik 14y ago
      Because the cost of manufacture is something like 1% of the cost from 20 years ago? Because similar devices can and would be sold for a fraction of the price if students were allowed to use them?
      - eckyptang 14y ago
        I don't think it is 1% of the cost. That's an out of the air figure which makes no sense at all. I used to be an EE and a reduction in manufacturing cost like that is never going to happen unless you're selling LED keyrings or something. Probably a more realistic one is 80% of the cost and the profit margin has probably been destroyed by the uptake of computers in schools. Also don't forget that even though they are simple devices, their SoC (z80) is binary compatible going back to 1996 (that's 16 years). It takes a lot of money to keep that compatibility and good supplier relations producing old silicon yet adding features. Other manufacturers such as Casio don't open up their platform as much as TI and therefore can swap CPUs etc. If you look at Casio, each device is fundamentally different and incompatible. Some of them are SH3, some microcontroller, some dedicated silicon. Buy a Casio 9750 now and it won't run a program you wrote on a 7400 a few years ago. TI decided to fix all this with the NSpire which uses Mentor Nucleus as the OS and gives people binary compatibility through other means i.e a higher bedrock abstraction. The 83 is spot on for schools which is why they insist on it. It's just the right device for the job and is a sensible convention. The NSpire emulates a TI83 to give you an idea how important this is to TI ( http://education.ti.com/images/product-family/nspire-touchpad-84-Keypad-Insertion.jpg http://education.ti.com/images/product-family/nspire-touchpa... )

by tesmar2 14y ago

eckyptang 14y ago

Yes it costs only 8 pints for a massively powerful computing platform. I remember paying 45 pints for a calculator at university (TI 85). (pints of cheap lager that is).

iRobot 14y ago
Oh to be back in the home country where a pint only costs 1/8th of a Raspberry Pi..
tesmar2 14y ago
An 83 is the first machine I programmed on and I think it's still a great tool to start with because of its portability. The Pi is nice because of projects like this article mentioned.
samstave 14y ago
Measuring costs of hardware in beer brings a whole new twist to "free as in beer"
happycube 14y ago
The sad bit is the ti calcs haven't gotten any cheaper. Monopoly rent, anyone?
- eckyptang 14y ago
  And? Why should they. They have an eternal shelf life and it's not like their functionality becomes obsolete every two years. For ref I paid 25GBP for an NSpire CAS - just don't buy new.
  - jgeralnik 14y ago
    Because the cost of manufacture is something like 1% of the cost from 20 years ago? Because similar devices can and would be sold for a fraction of the price if students were allowed to use them?
    - eckyptang 14y ago
      I don't think it is 1% of the cost. That's an out of the air figure which makes no sense at all. I used to be an EE and a reduction in manufacturing cost like that is never going to happen unless you're selling LED keyrings or something. Probably a more realistic one is 80% of the cost and the profit margin has probably been destroyed by the uptake of computers in schools. Also don't forget that even though they are simple devices, their SoC (z80) is binary compatible going back to 1996 (that's 16 years). It takes a lot of money to keep that compatibility and good supplier relations producing old silicon yet adding features. Other manufacturers such as Casio don't open up their platform as much as TI and therefore can swap CPUs etc. If you look at Casio, each device is fundamentally different and incompatible. Some of them are SH3, some microcontroller, some dedicated silicon. Buy a Casio 9750 now and it won't run a program you wrote on a 7400 a few years ago. TI decided to fix all this with the NSpire which uses Mentor Nucleus as the OS and gives people binary compatibility through other means i.e a higher bedrock abstraction. The 83 is spot on for schools which is why they insist on it. It's just the right device for the job and is a sensible convention. The NSpire emulates a TI83 to give you an idea how important this is to TI ( http://education.ti.com/images/product-family/nspire-touchpad-84-Keypad-Insertion.jpg http://education.ti.com/images/product-family/nspire-touchpa... )