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Raspberry Pi - a $25 PC

E

evilsofa

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jan 1, 2007
Messages
10,077
The $25 Raspberry Pi PC looks very interesting. 700MHz ARM11 processor, 128MB RAM, OpenGL ES 2.0, and 1080p output. It's a linux... box, but it's not even a box, it's a USB stick that you plug into the HDMI port on your monitor. The $35 version has two USB ports, 10/100 Ethernet and 256MB RAM. I wonder what games it could run?

The general implications are serious, though. With all the miniaturization going on, what's to stop PCs from just becoming the size of a USB stick plugged into the back or side of your monitor? Having a USB stick capable of running Crysis 10 years from now does not seem outrageous.

http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/raspberry-pi-25-pc-goes-into-alpha-production-20110728/
 
evilsofa said:
The $25 Raspberry Pi PC looks very interesting. 700MHz ARM11 processor, 128MB RAM, OpenGL ES 2.0, and 1080p output. It's a linux... box, but it's not even a box, it's a USB stick that you plug into the HDMI port on your monitor. The $35 version has two USB ports, 10/100 Ethernet and 256MB RAM. I wonder what games it could run?

The general implications are serious, though. With all the miniaturization going on, what's to stop PCs from just becoming the size of a USB stick plugged into the back or side of your monitor? Having a USB stick capable of running Crysis 10 years from now does not seem outrageous.

http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/raspberry-pi-25-pc-goes-into-alpha-production-20110728/
Click to expand...


I wouldn't be suprised at all. Everything is smaller and more integrated as time goes on. I think the only implications is what affect it will have on communities like this that like to customize and work with various pieces of hardware. We won't be able to essentially "upgrade" as we do nowadays.
 
I am thinking that it means we are going to have supercomputers in the future. Think of what you could stuff into a SFF case!
 
Man that sounds like what I want for a home NAS/print server. It's really a shame Windows Home Server wasn't made for ARM -- the cost and power savings would make it a lot more attractive to me.
 
tonytnnt said:
Man that sounds like what I want for a home NAS/print server. It's really a shame Windows Home Server wasn't made for ARM -- the cost and power savings would make it a lot more attractive to me.
Click to expand...

you could use a samba server with linux.
 
Keep in mind this is actually really slow. ARM11 is what was powering things like the G1 and the iPhone 1 - it's pretty slow, and 256mb of RAM isn't enough for much of anything. But at $35, it looks like a fun toy (the $25 one is kind of useless with no networking and even less RAM)

We are still many many years from something this small and this cheap being a desktop replacement. That said, something this small being a laptop or even a primary computer replacement is quite possible in a couple of years - cell phones are getting pretty close to that point already.
 
How is this capable of 1080p when other ARM11 devices barely handle 720p?

At $35 it could make for a decent music streamer.
 
Slow and cant do anything? So i suppose you havent seen the video of it playing quake at 10-20 fps (which they said was faster on the prototype and hope to fix).

Im going to make my own handheld emulator (snes,psp,mame)

edit: HUGE TYPO
 
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I wouldn't mind having a smart phone in my pocket and have it sync wirelessly with a monitor keyboard and mouse and just keep the phone in my pocket. Even having a charging dock and place your phone/pocket pc and run a cable from that to the monitor and have a wireless mouse/kb.

*the device would have to run a slim desktop OS, not android or iOS
 
kllrnohj said:
(the $25 one is kind of useless with no networking and even less RAM)
Click to expand...

USB wireless adaptors, USB to Ethernet adaptors, and even some modems have Internet over USB cables.

Considering you can daisy chain 256 USB devices just use a Hub to expand
 
86 5.0L said:
I wouldn't mind having a smart phone in my pocket and have it sync wirelessly with a monitor keyboard and mouse and just keep the phone in my pocket. Even having a charging dock and place your phone/pocket pc and run a cable from that to the monitor and have a wireless mouse/kb.

*the device would have to run a slim desktop OS, not android or iOS
Click to expand...

i disagree android could work and this device could make for a good bridge for older tvs with hdmi to have a small invisible pc attached all this thing needs is a remote and a wifi connection and it could with a proper gpu/decoder be able to stream netflix and be a micro home theater link the thing is it will definitely need more ram closer to a gig...

I could see a device similar to this running windows 8 or some variation on android as a media center dongle...
 
This would be awesome for a car pc too. Should be able to fit everything in the center console or glove box.
 
86 5.0L said:
USB wireless adaptors, USB to Ethernet adaptors, and even some modems have Internet over USB cables.

Considering you can daisy chain 256 USB devices just use a Hub to expand
Click to expand...

that would be ungodly slow :(
 
lilfiend said:
that would be ungodly slow :(
Click to expand...

Not really. Keyboard / mouse / ethernet adapter / wifi adapter don't really require much bandwidth in the real world. The larger device also has 2 ports, so it's not like you'd have to split a single channel.
 
kllrnohj said:
Keep in mind this is actually really slow. ARM11 is what was powering things like the G1 and the iPhone 1 - it's pretty slow, and 256mb of RAM isn't enough for much of anything. But at $35, it looks like a fun toy (the $25 one is kind of useless with no networking and even less RAM)

We are still many many years from something this small and this cheap being a desktop replacement. That said, something this small being a laptop or even a primary computer replacement is quite possible in a couple of years - cell phones are getting pretty close to that point already.
Click to expand...

Actually, it could replace my desktop. A very simple WM/virtualized terms/gnu screen = replaced.
 
Yossarian22 said:
Actually, it could replace my desktop. A very simple WM/virtualized terms/gnu screen = replaced.
Click to expand...

Good luck with that :p

86 5.0L said:
USB wireless adaptors, USB to Ethernet adaptors, and even some modems have Internet over USB cables.

Considering you can daisy chain 256 USB devices just use a Hub to expand
Click to expand...

Sure, at which point it isn't $25 anymore.
 
Not $25, but still cheap as anything. I like these just as dirt cheap HD decoders. At that price I see no reason every TV in the house shouldn't have one (with wifi or ethernet dongle attached) to stream content from a network share. Sure, some can do this themselves but you pay way more than the roughly $50 total this setup would cost you, and aren't nearly as flexible.
 
daveatx said:
Slow and cant do anything? So i suppose you havent seen the video of it playing quake at 100 fps (which they said was faster on the prototype and hope to fix).

Im going to make my own handheld emulator (snes,psp,mame)
Click to expand...
whoah there, we talking about the video clip in this thread of quake3? Which shows it running between 20 and 10 fps? If you have a video clip of it running at 100fps please share.
 
daveatx said:
obvious typo was obvious?
Click to expand...
typo not very obvious, because it doesn't work for your argument.

quake3 at 15 fps, while being impressive for a small 25$ computer, definitly does not pull it out of the definition of "slow".

My celeron 433mhz with an ati 128 rage pulled better framerate than that. I can assure you, my celeron 433 feels almost unusable just browsing the internet these days.

I'm not arguing that it is a slow device, just that that particular example you are using isn't really helping you.
 
I'd love one of these just for playing media and some older emulators. Wanted a box like that for ages.

As far as it being "slow"...it's basically a smartphone chip setup...so a good light linux distro should run fine on it.

Something like a port of Boxee or XBMC to it would be awesome.
 
This thing can't come out fast enough. I've been using fitPCs up until this point for my blackbox needs, but they're hardly "affordable".
 
At $35 it'd be worth having just to casually walk up to your buddy's TV and plug in a PC and begin to be a total gadget nerd who only a select few would actually appreciate.
 
Very cool. This could very easily replace carPC's. Imagine just plugging one of these into the USB port of a double DIN touchscreen monitor..
 
So it has less everything when compared to the typical smartphone....why?
 
evilsofa said:
Having a USB stick capable of running Crysis 10 years from now does not seem outrageous.
Click to expand...

Really neat!

While it may be possible to have a thumbdrive sized PC running games like Crysis 10 years from now, we aren't going to want to play crysis anymore. we are going to want to play the next great thing on our 20th generation Geforce/Radeon in full life holographic 3d or some shit like that. :p

Miniaturization is great, but you will always be able to get more at a lower price with a larger box, than you are able to get with a smaller one.

This will go on until the miniature PC's are "good enough" and knowing people on here, that will never happen :p
 
wwischerath said:
I am thinking that it means we are going to have supercomputers in the future. Think of what you could stuff into a SFF case!
Click to expand...

Except, at that point they won't be super computers. They'll just be computers.

The only thing that makes a super computer a super computer is its capabilities many times that of the normal computer at the time.

An Intel Core i7-2600K has a theoretical performance of 128,300 MIPS, Compare this to the first "modern" super computer, the Cray 1, with its 160 MIPS. That's 801 times faster. Flops would be a better measurement to compare to super computers, but its tough to find good data on this on modern CPU's)

If you look at it this way, to someone in 1976 looking at their shiny new Cray 1 supercomputer we all have supercomputers today. Even those of us running on a low end netbook.



So will we all have supercomputers in the future? yes and no. They will be as fast or faster than todays super computers, but they will - to us in the future - just be computers :p
 
Going to mod Raspberry Pi into netbook.

Already have chassis and a lot of the electronics.
 
serpretetsky said:
Because typical smart phone doesn't cost 25$?
Click to expand...

Which smartphone was it that had the screen and keyboard you could buy with it? Sure it is more than 25$, but it also gives you more power, more capabilities, and includes the screen/kb as well as an extended battery to allow for you to use it wherever, as well as a data plan to allow you to use it on the go.
 
sc0tty8 said:
Which smartphone was it that had the screen and keyboard you could buy with it? Sure it is more than 25$, but it also gives you more power, more capabilities, and includes the screen/kb as well as an extended battery to allow for you to use it wherever, as well as a data plan to allow you to use it on the go.
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with any smart phone that comes anywhere close to 25$ without a contract, please share.
 
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