Pi can stimulate Computer Science lessons in schools

The Raspberry Pi Foundation from Cambridgeshire has launched it’s innovative device the Pi. The Pi can be used by children/parents to learn about Computer Science/Engineering .

The Pi is not ground breaking technology but it’s potential is in the design and size.

The Pi is basically a green circuit board about the size of a credit card.
It has a processor – similar to the one used in many smartphones, so it is not particularly fast by modern PC standards.

Specifications it has onboard
a memory chip,
an Ethernet port to connect to the internet
a couple of USB ports to connect a keyboard and mouse.

To use the Pi, you have to provide a monitor, keyboard and mouse – to turn it into a PC/handheld.

Oh, and you have to program it yourself.

It comes with basic (free) open-source software but the idea is for children to learn to write their own apps for the device.

The most amazing thing about the device – apart from the size is the truly the price.
Already, thousands of children are really interested!

The devices are being shipped from a warehouse in Leeds by the 10k.
You can now order one for just £22 (excluding VAT list.)
Expect to join a long queue of eager computer buffs.

The Raspberry Foundation Plan

The ambition of Eben Upton, an engineers from Raspberry Pi, is to provide every child in Britain with their own cheap, programmable, credit-card-sized computer.
The next challenge will be to find interested and competent teachers. More teachers need to be qualified in Science and Computer Engineering, if we want our children to be computer literate in the immediate future.

Technical Info

The Raspberry Pi (or RasPi) is a single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The foundation has released two versions, priced at US$25 and $35 (~GB£16 and ~£22). The $35 model was released first on 29 Febuary 2012.

The design is based around a Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC), which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU, and 256 Megabytes of RAM. The design does not include a built-in hard disk or solid-state drive, instead relying on an SD card for booting and long-term storage.

This board is intended to run Linux kernel based operating systems
It supports the Python programming language, BBC BASIC, C and Perl.