The first batch of Raspberry Pi microcomputers finally went on sale this morning at 6am, and the first batch of 10,000 units sold out within seconds, causing the company’s website to crash.
With such a tasty name, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Raspberry Pi is a new version of Android, but it’s in fact a tiny and very basic computer that has been developed by a British firm, and costs just £22. It’s about the size of a credit card, and its creators hope it will help today’s children to learn to program and develop further abilities with computing. The product could also be sold in less developed countries, as it can provide access to the internet and simple applications for such a low price.
Despite its diminutive size, the Raspberry Pi has a Dual-Core processor, a USB port for a keyboard or mouse, Ethernet port for internet connectivity, SD card slot for expanding the memory, and a HDMI out port for connecting to a monitor or TV. The device runs on a simple version of the free Linux operating system, and can run popular applications such as Firefox.
Throughout the last year excitement has grown for this tiny and exciting new product – at our last check the company had over 100,000 people signed up to its newsletter for the Raspberry Pi, which understandably caused a hectic mess come 6am this morning when just 10,000 units went on sale.
The Raspberry Pi is both the product name and the charity behind the device, set up by a man called Eben Upton, an engineer from Cambridge. He had the idea for the microcomputer around 5 years ago, and with the help of video game expert David Braben, they created the device you’ll see in the video below.
Two retailers were offering the device at 6am this morning – RS and Farnell – both of which crashed early. We’ve managed to get one in our basket at Farnell, but unfortunately the site is still experiencing some problems, so fingers crossed.
Did you manage to nab a Raspberry Pi this morning?
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