Your next computer could cost $25 USD December 21, 2011
Posted by martin in : News , trackbackI love shopping for my next computer; looking at video cards, selecting the word processing and web design software, upgrading the memory and of course, best of all, picking out the largest monitor I can afford. But what I hate most of all is when the bill comes because the amount of money I spent on the hardware and software is always way over my budget. I mean, why does all this cost so much? And how can I find a computer that is truly affordable? Well, the folks at a UK-based charity are working to make my dream of a cheap computer a reality.
The $25 Computer
Enter the Raspberry Pi, the $25 computer that the UK-based charity Raspberry Pi unveiled last month. Before anyone (like me, for example) gets excited, the Raspberry Pi is a mere prototype and really is not much stronger than a smartphone. Its hardware consists of an ARM processor pushing 700 megahertz and 128 megabytes of RAM. It even has a USB and a HDMI port for connecting hardware such as a a keyboard, a monitor or TV screen. However, it is able to run software quite well. Computer engineers have successfully run Linux and the video game Quake 3 on it. And finally, the entire computer is about the size of a USB memory stick.
Raspberry Pi Computer Charity Foundation
The $25 computer is the brainchild of the Raspberry Pi Charity Foundation. The goal of this UK-based foundation is to promote scientific and computer-related products and issues at the school level. It is their hope that by developing a cheap and affordable computer, the educational power of computers can be delivered to each and every classroom. If you are skeptical about the Raspberry Pi, as I was, you can read about their here in a BBC article produced a few months ago.
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