9 ms·

I've been around long enough to find it absolutely astonishing, that you can now fit a computer with 16gb of ram, 265gb of storage and a quad core processor, wi

I've been around long enough to find it absolutely astonishing, that you can now fit a computer with 16gb of ram, 265gb of storage and a quad core processor, with no cooling, inside a keyboard.

thw_9a83c 1y ago
It is astonishing! It's especially impressive when you realize that the motherboard itself is so small that most of the keyboard interior is basically empty space [0]. [0]: https://assets.raspberrypi.com/static/25912715ba437c32c56757dd7395322d/c72a2/exploded.webp https://assets.raspberrypi.com/static/25912715ba437c32c56757...
- vegancap 1y ago
  That's incredible!
  - thw_9a83c 1y ago
    For a comparison, the "similar" computer from 2006 [0] had a maximum configuration of 4xCPU @ 1 GHz and 8GB of RAM. It weighed 60 lb (27 kg) and looked like this: https://imgur.com/fc7BWTc https://imgur.com/fc7BWTc But Raspberry Pi 500+ has already 2.4GHz quad-core ARM64 CPU and 16GB RAM. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Tezro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Tezro
- zamalek 1y ago
  I'll be hanging around until someone mods more PIs into it.
  - wishfish 1y ago
    Thinking of the old Slashdot joke but with a twist. Imagine a Beowulf Cluster inside your keyboard.
    - sprinkly-dust 1y ago
      This might be (relatively) easily achieved by networking a couple of Raspberry Pi Zero 2's together under the Pi 500+ keyboard shell.
kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
Better yet. It would have made the TOP500 in 1997.
Cheer2171 1y ago
Those capabilities have been in a much smaller slab you have been able to carry around in your pocket for the last 5 years minimum, and that slab was a fully functional computer with full touchscreen display input, microphone/speaker, and cellular. The Samsung S20 Ultra (2020) has 16gb RAM 256GB of good fast storage, and with Dex you can connect it to a monitor and keyboard+mouse via a USB C dock and get a desktop window environment. Of course the RPi costs less, but marvel over that, not the form or compactness. RPi innovated on cost, but this capacity in this form is everywhere. They don't even use most of the space inside the keyboard, the compute module is all the size of a smartphone.
- vegancap 1y ago
  Yeah it's the cost as well that's impressive. I've got a Samsung S25 Ultra in my pocket right now, but it cost like... £1200, so I'm less blown away by that somehow
kondro 1y ago
The iPhone Air has an A19 (50% faster than M1 in single core and 10% faster in multi-core benchmarks), 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage in a space no larger than the raised bar the camera sits in.
mrheosuper 1y ago
They can already fit a way faster machine, inside something that can fit in your pocket. It also comes with a very high resolution screen.

I've been around long enough to find it absolutely astonishing, that you can now fit a computer with 16gb of ram, 265gb of storage and a quad core processor, with no cooling, inside a keyboard.

thw_9a83c 1y ago

It is astonishing! It's especially impressive when you realize that the motherboard itself is so small that most of the keyboard interior is basically empty space [0]. [0]: https://assets.raspberrypi.com/static/25912715ba437c32c56757dd7395322d/c72a2/exploded.webp https://assets.raspberrypi.com/static/25912715ba437c32c56757...

vegancap 1y ago
That's incredible!
- thw_9a83c 1y ago
  For a comparison, the "similar" computer from 2006 [0] had a maximum configuration of 4xCPU @ 1 GHz and 8GB of RAM. It weighed 60 lb (27 kg) and looked like this: https://imgur.com/fc7BWTc https://imgur.com/fc7BWTc But Raspberry Pi 500+ has already 2.4GHz quad-core ARM64 CPU and 16GB RAM. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Tezro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_Tezro
zamalek 1y ago
I'll be hanging around until someone mods more PIs into it.
- wishfish 1y ago
  Thinking of the old Slashdot joke but with a twist. Imagine a Beowulf Cluster inside your keyboard.
  - sprinkly-dust 1y ago
    This might be (relatively) easily achieved by networking a couple of Raspberry Pi Zero 2's together under the Pi 500+ keyboard shell.

kevin_thibedeau 1y ago

Better yet. It would have made the TOP500 in 1997.

Cheer2171 1y ago

Those capabilities have been in a much smaller slab you have been able to carry around in your pocket for the last 5 years minimum, and that slab was a fully functional computer with full touchscreen display input, microphone/speaker, and cellular. The Samsung S20 Ultra (2020) has 16gb RAM 256GB of good fast storage, and with Dex you can connect it to a monitor and keyboard+mouse via a USB C dock and get a desktop window environment. Of course the RPi costs less, but marvel over that, not the form or compactness. RPi innovated on cost, but this capacity in this form is everywhere. They don't even use most of the space inside the keyboard, the compute module is all the size of a smartphone.

vegancap 1y ago
Yeah it's the cost as well that's impressive. I've got a Samsung S25 Ultra in my pocket right now, but it cost like... £1200, so I'm less blown away by that somehow

kondro 1y ago

The iPhone Air has an A19 (50% faster than M1 in single core and 10% faster in multi-core benchmarks), 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage in a space no larger than the raised bar the camera sits in.

mrheosuper 1y ago

They can already fit a way faster machine, inside something that can fit in your pocket. It also comes with a very high resolution screen.