Hasta La Gadget!

In 1987, as the first reduced instruction set computing (RISC) ARM chips hit the scene, programmers at Acorn Computers created RISC OS, a simple, ‘co-operatively multi-tasked’ OS designed for small computing environments. While it’s no Linux, it’s still a great way to get to know RISC computing and, more important, it boots fast and has a working GUI. Now, according to a post on Rasberrypi.org, it’s available for download for all Pi users.

You can download the OS here but the Raspberry Pi creators recommend a quick stroll around the OS using this PDF as a guide. You can also try the OS using an ACORN emulator for Windows and OS X (although the Mac version seems to be missing). There is also an interesting history and tutorial on the site.

People rave about the filer and the consistent UI, but I’m just excited to see seemingly dead OSes resurrected as teaching tools. It gets us back to the bare metal of the machine and, more important, puts budding programmers into a situation where not everything is a given.

The Raspberry Pi is one hot piece of commodity when it was first introduced and shipped earlier this year, allowing hobbyists to take advantage of its relatively low, low price to come up with projects of their own. We are willing to venture out and say that the LapPi is one of the more creative and interesting methods of implementing the Raspberry Pi, where you have a laptop built from scratch. Of course, with a 700 MHz ARM11 processor running underneath the hood accompanied by 512MB RAM (although the newer Pis come with 1GB RAM it seems), it is not much to work with in the first place, but at least you can run some of the more basic programs out there at decent speeds without missing a beat. Other connectivity options include Ethernet, USB, and HDMI, and the LapPi project will also boast of WiFi and Bluetooth support, in addition to a keyboard, a touchpad, a display, and batteries to keep this puppy going while you are on the move. Not only that, avid DIYer SilverJimmy also decided to include GPS, a microphone, and stereo speakers to get you started on the right footing.

The LapPi is powered by a 10-pack of rechargeable AA batteries, although there is an option to have 8 alkaline AA batteries juice it instead. However, folks who are averse to DIY projects might just purchase a netbook instead, as it will probably cost the equivalent of cobbling the LapPi together.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: The Dark Pi Rises in the form of a drone, Raspberry Pi is at the heart of this BBC Micro-inspired keyboard ,

The differentiator for the Raspberry Pi mini computer is price. It’s not the most powerful single-board computer around but it’s not trying to be. The platform-makers’ big idea was to make a device that kids could learn to code on — meaning it needed to be powerful enough to do cool stuff like play BlueRay-quality video, but cheap enough that kids wouldn’t have to share it with the rest of the family. And at $35 for the current model B — and $25 for the forthcoming model A (which has less memory, fewer USB ports and no Ethernet) — it’s already got a disruptive price-tag.

But how low could the Raspberry Pi’s price-tag go in future? Eben Upton, founder of the not-for-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation and the man behind the Pi’s design, says that while he can’t envisage being able to make a $10 or $15 Pi, there might be room to shave a few more dollars off the cost. ”I think we’re very close to the minimum possible cost, once you’ve put a board, some connectors, a CPU and a bit of RAM down and allowed for a bit of margin,” he tells TechCrunch. “I could see getting to $20 one day for a very bare-bones product, but not soon, and no lower than that.”

The current $35 Pi costs “somewhere in the $20-$30 range” to manufacture, says Upton, indicating there’s very little wiggle room for squeezing what is already a tiny price-tag that little bit smaller. But even at $35/$25 per Pi the Foundation reckons it’s on course to ship one million units in the first year of sale — an order of magnitude greater than the one thousand Pis they had originally imagined being able to sell. It’s also starting to see interest from developing countries in using the Pi as an affordable general purpose computing device. Add to that, the Foundation this week upped the amount of memory in the model B Pi — to 512MB – without increasing its $35 price-tag. So you’re getting a whole lot more RAM with your Pi for the same amount of money.

The Foundation does not manufacture the Pi itself — it licenses the design to two companies Premier Farnell/Element 14 and RS Components. But Upton says it sets a recommended price in consultation with its partners — thereby keeping the price generally stable but allowing for “some small variation in non-US markets” where distribution costs may be higher.

Sure, Red Bull may have gotten a lot of attention by sponsoring Felix Baumgartner’s space dive, but it’s not the only beverage-maker that has made some great accomplishments possible. The Prague-based brewery Staropramen was a sponsor at the recent Webstock 2012 conference, where the folks from Robofun Create showed off this so-called Beer Keyboard built with the brewer’s backing. As you can see, it’s more beer than keyboard, with 40 cans of Staropramen serving as “keys” that just need to be gently pressed to input a letter. To make that actually work, Robofun paired an Arduino board with some capacitive controllers for the base, and connected that to a Raspberry Pi that linked the keyboard to the TV. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the keyboard has since gone missing. Head on past the break for a video.

Continue reading Beer Keyboard combines Arduino and Raspberry Pi… and beer

Filed under: Peripherals

Beer Keyboard combines Arduino and Raspberry Pi… and beer originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re fans of the existing Raspberry Pi developer board’s around here. These little things can be used for all sorts of purposes, including little HTPC computers and much more. As useful as these little developer boards are, there some users out there who have been clamoring for better performance.

Back in September, Raspberry Pi announced a new Turbo Mode that promised to squeeze 50% more performance from the little machine. Turbo Mode allows the processor to be overclocked as high as 1 GHz for more performance. More processor speed is a great thing, but Raspberry Pi says that one of the most common requests is extra RAM.

Raspberry Pi has now addressed that request for more RAM with the announcement that the Model B of the little developer board is now shipping with 512 MB of RAM. Previously, the little board had 256 MB of RAM. Versions of the board running 512 MB of RAM are expected to arrive in customer’s hands today.

The company says that it will make a firmware upgrade available “in the next couple of days” allowing users to access the additional memory. That would indicate that right out-of-the-box even though there’s 512 MB of RAM present, the Raspberry Pi boards won’t be able to access more than 256 MB. Combining more RAM with Turbo Mode should broaden the use of this tiny little developer board.

Raspberry Pi Model B gets 512 MB of RAM is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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