Is the Raspberry Pi real at that price?

1129409)

Computer-MicroController

That aint nothing! spit!

:)

Jamie

Thanks for the support Rick,

The reason I started this thread was because of Tsvetan at Olimex, who was trying to purchase a unit at the the embedded world Conference 2012 28.2. - 1.3.2012, Nuremberg, in Germany last week. Below are his comments from a forum thread:

====================== djuqa wrote: And for those of you that haven't heard the news, they sold out within a couple hours. ====================== Tsvetan wrote: I do not believe this, this is what is written on their web page: ===================== djuqa wrote: Although we are still waiting for units to arrive from China, you can start buying the Raspberry Pi today. ===================== Tsvetan wrote: so they never ran this 10K batch, and now you can pre-order from Farnell and RS-Components and wait 60 days, hoping that they will finally manage to arrange the manufacturing.

it's pity as it all seems now to look like cheap advertising for Broadcom for their processor. (the man behind this project - Mr. Raspberry Pi is working for Broadcom)

They said they will produce complete linux computer with HDMI for $25, but they obviously have no any manufacturing background nor they every did production in any scale, and 10K unit production is not so easy as they think. It was really funny to read on their forum how they intend to manufacture the boards in UK but the "import taxes" were holding them off, to build just tester for such board which to load the linux image and do the functional test for series of 10K pcs will cost about 200K GBP so they will not fit in their budged just to test the boards in UK.

$25 is the Arduino board price tag, releasing board with 256MB RAM and ARM on

700 Mhz at this price have no business logic/background - this you can achieve for board with 8bit micro or you have to not include re-seller margin and to work on really tight budged. I don't say this is not possible, there are Bit-tornet loaders on Deal Extreme for $30 which run linux but there the processor is smaller and with no HDMI, so if the chinese can't do it for $25 I don't see how UK based company will arrange the production.

The board which came close to these specs is the BeagleBone for $89 which TI sells to selected developers at cost for $50-60

Raspberry PI so far just makes press releases and sold few boards for 1000 GBP each on e-bay, they had to release this

10K batch in December, January, February, end of February and now it looks like the earliest release date through Farnell is April .. 1st

I really wanted to buy one at Embedded but had no chance.

To add on top of this the closed source code for the Broadcom processor, this board will have never mainstream linux support like Beagle and other boards which are with completely open source drivers.

==========================

It worries me just a little that the rPi, the rPi foundation, and the rPi processor used, is all Broadcom.

Don...

============

--
Don McKenzie

Dontronics: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/

DuinoMite the PIC32 $35 Basic Computer-MicroController
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/the-maximite-computer.html
Just add a VGA monitor or TV, and PS2 Keyboard.
Arduino Shield, Programmed in Basic, or C.

You'rean idiot.I made a complaint about some label software we use.

Stop being a Larkinesque pathetic little bitch.

I believe the suggested idea was to use the Pi as an embedded DSP board for sound generation. Have it boot directly into the synth software, control it over MIDI (serial or USB) and you don't need any other input nor an attached display.

-a

trying to purchase a unit at the the embedded

are his comments from a forum thread:

Bit-tornet loaders on Deal Extreme for $30

chinese can't do it for $25 I don't see

sells to selected developers at cost for $50-60

each on e-bay, they had to release this

the earliest release date through

board will have never mainstream linux

drivers.

processor used, is all Broadcom.

Maybe its Broadcom's way to enter the industrial market. This market is mostly served by TI and Freescale. They used to have expensive eval kits. Since the Beagleboard caught on so well and got TI a lot of business Freescale is also offering low cost development boards.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
--------------------------------------------------------------

The board first went to manufacturing in January(1). Component supply problems meant it was delayed to the end of February(2). Rather than handling it themselves, this first batch has been handed over to Farnell and RS for distribution. Future production will also be handled by Farnell and RS.

So what? The principals behind the BeagleBoard work for TI.

Both of these are correct. The price does not include a reseller margin because there was not intended to be a reseller. Consequently the prices reported in most regions are slightly higher than the ones set by the Raspberry Foundation.

It should be noted that the $25 Model A board includes neither Ethernet nor HDMI.

Some comments from a BeagleBoard community representative (also a TI employee, shock horror):

At least the 3D graphics for the BeagleBoards use a binary blob driver.

Why? Also, Eben Upton is the only foundation trustee employed by Broadcom.

-a (ps. Please fix your line width)

(1) (2)

Thanks for the feed back Anders.

I don't know if you have insider information, or if this is your take on it.

If the price quoted isn't the retail price, do you think it would be fair at this stage if Broadcom announced this, and adjusted the price they are quoting, so that it reflects what the public is going to pay?

Or at least made mention of it being a wholesale price, not a retail price?

seems fine to me.

Cheers Don...

==========================

--
Don McKenzie

Dontronics: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/

DuinoMite the PIC32 $35 Basic Computer-MicroController
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/the-maximite-computer.html
Just add a VGA monitor or TV, and PS2 Keyboard.
Arduino Shield, Programmed in Basic, or C.

this stage if Broadcom announced this, and

going to pay?

I guess as long as your posts are intended only for yourself, that's fine. If you want others to read them, then fix you line width. I gave up about 1/4 of the way through your post because of the bad formatting.

--
Grant.

This is all publically available information.

Broadcom has nothing to do with the price, so why would they announce anything about it?

The final retail price is set by the distributors (RS and Farnell), and at least at the moment the advertised price seems to vary by local branch. Eg. RS UK are still advertising a price of £21.60(1), which converts to $34.22, but in the Philippines they are advertising it for PHP2000(2), which converts to $47.43.

It's not a wholesale price.

-a

(1) (2)

Thanks Anders, so for clarification, it is a retail price, but retailers are going to put another margin on top, in order to make a profit.

Cheers Don...

======================

--
Don McKenzie

Dontronics: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/

DuinoMite the PIC32 $35 Basic Computer-MicroController
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/the-maximite-computer.html
Just add a VGA monitor or TV, and PS2 Keyboard.
Arduino Shield, Programmed in Basic, or C.

They might get some good publicity out of it on the coat tails of a project that has from nowhere suddenly fired up the public imagination.

I think you will find there is 20% VAT to pay on top of the RS list price so the end user price inclusive of tax if they are not a VAT registered business will be £25.92.

It is the one off "I want to buy one" price and at the moment purchases are limited to *one* per customer.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

The idea in this case stems from academia and the shortage of new undergraduates interested in the nuts and bolts of computing.

I agree. I cut my teeth taking apart TTL from failed ICL1900 boards and sorting the house codes into 74xx chips to test and build new things. These days with tight multilegged surface mount devices you stand no chance of getting bits to play with from old scrap boards.

We will have to wait and see how it plays out. The BBC micro in its day spawned a whole bunch of DIY add-ons as did the ill fated Sinclair QL.

The modern PC is just too complicated for children to learn to program well and interface to DIY external hardware.

I just hope that they have got the software programming toolset for this device right. Since Alan Mycroft is an expert in compiler design and static code testing there is a sporting chance that it will provide a useful environment for teaching computer internals at school.

I haven't seen one in the flesh yet. But the pedigree of the trustees of Raspberry Pi is excellent in terms of computer science skills.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

That's also /exactly/ what was said back just before the OLPC project tanked, after years of hyping-to and rallying-up the FOSS community to get behind it...

--
Chris

On a sunny day (Mon, 5 Mar 2012 03:33:41 +0000 (UTC)) it happened Grant Edwards wrote in :

this stage if Broadcom announced this, and

going to pay?

Bull, there is no line length limit on Usenet It is an artistic decision!

I don't know about where you live, but around here a small TV with an HDMI input is a lot cheaper than a laptop. Ditto for a cheap display.

Keyboard 10 bucks mouse probably even cheaper.

Woolies are flogging usb kbds for $2.99 standard price.

Most college coursework is enhanced with laptop ownership. Any student in his or her right mind will have one, and it has nothing to do with interest in the science.

ALL engineers have them. There are only a few engineers' offices at work which are not fitted without a computer, but *with* a laptop docking station.

It also poses policy and protocol logistical needs for drive encryption to keep your company's data theirs.

I never said there was. What I said was that if your intention is to communicate with and persuade others, then you would want to present your argument in the most widely readable format. On Usenet, that means limiting line length.

If you claim your postings to Usenet are "art", then how you format them is indeed an artistic decision. That seems a bit deluded to me, but I'm not an artist -- I'm an engineer who does embedded system design.

--
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! With YOU, I can be
                                  at               MYSELF ...  We don't NEED
                              gmail.com            Dan Rather ...

[steps gingerly over a few piles of troll-poo]

A point that some of the posters here seem to have missed is that the Rasbberry Pi is targetted at the UK secondary education market, and not the hardware hobbyist, nor the lone electronics entrepreneur, nor any other country's education system. I sincerely hope that it succeeds in its intended market. I suspect that some other types of users will find it adequately useful for other purposes, and if so, well done all round.

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