- Pi’s Ninth Birthday: 9 Things You Might Not Know
- Avram Piltch
- The Nuggets translation Project
- Permanent link to this article: github.com/xitu/gold-m…
- Translator: Hoarfroster
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Rasp Pi was originally released on February 29, 2012
The Raspberry Pi, one of the most popular and innovative computer families in the world, was officially launched on February 29, 2012. In nine years, 38 million raspberry pies have been sold. They power huge groups of manufacturers, students and businesses. It started as a small project to promote computer science education at Cambridge, but has now gone global.
Every true technophile should own at least one raspberry pie, or, like me, 30. We could use it as a lightweight PC, a retro arcade, or to power a variety of projects, from home security cameras to tic-tac-toe robots, automated garbage delivery robots, or streaming media servers.
Why don’t we celebrate PI’s ninth birthday with 9 facts about PI?
1. Raspberry PI’s initial sales target was just 1,000 units
Raspberry PI was originally developed as a solution to a very limited problem: the number of applications to Cambridge’s computer science department is falling — the number of CV applications has fallen from 600 a year to 250. Eben Upton, who was in charge of teaching and admissions, was concerned that not enough children were interested in computers, so in an effort to attract more able pupils, he provided a small number of British children with a low-cost, easy-to-modify computer.
“What we’re designing, in the business world, revolves around the idea that if you can make 1,000 raspberry pies and put them in the hands of the right 1,000 kids, you can solve the problem,” he told us in a 2019 interview.
After a surge of interest in the project, Upton and his team decided they wanted to produce more than 1,000 raspberry pies, expanding from children in the UK to people of all ages in all countries and regions.
2. There are at least 21 different models of raspberry pie
Since its launch in 2012, the Raspberry PI Foundation has released 20 other models. If you factor in the four RAM capacities of the PI 4B and the 32 models of the PI Computing Module 4 (different RAM and storage capacities, and whether or not there is Wi-Fi), there are 52 models.
The original Raspberry PI B model only had 256MB of RAM and a single core 700MHz processor, while the current mainstream model raspberry PI 4B has up to 8GB of RAM, a quad-core 1.5ghz CPU, and USB 3.0 ports.
| model | Issuing date | Central processing unit | memory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry pie 1 b | In 2012, | 700 MHz Broadcom BCM2835 (1 core) | 256MB |
| 1 a raspberry | In 2013, | 700 MHz Broadcom BCM2835 (1 core) | 256MB |
| Raspberry pie a + 1 | In 2014, | 700 MHz Broadcom BCM2835 (1 core) | 512MB |
| Raspberry pie 1 b + | In 2014, | 700 MHz Broadcom BCM2835 (1 core) | 512MB |
| Computing Module 1 | In 2014, | 700 MHz Broadcom BCM2835 (1 core) | 512MB |
| Raspberry pie 2 b | In 2015, | 900 MHz Broadcom BCM2836 (4 cores) | 1GB |
| Raspberry PI Zero 1.2 | In 2015, | 1 GHz Broadcom BCM2835 (1 core) | 512MB |
| Raspberry PI 2B v1.2 | In 2016, | 1 GHz Broadcom BCM2835 (1 core) | 512MB |
| Raspberry pie 3 b | In 2016, | 1.2ghz Broadcom BCM2837 (4 cores) | 1GB |
| Raspberry PI Zero 1.3 | In 2016, | 1 GHz Broadcom BCM2835 (1 core) | 512MB |
| Raspberry PI Zero W | In 2017, | 1 GHz Broadcom BCM2835 (1 core) | 512MB |
| Computing Module 3 | In 2017, | 1.2ghz Broadcom BCM2837 (4 cores) | 1GB |
| Computing Module 3 Compact version | In 2017, | 1.2ghz Broadcom BCM2837 (4 cores) | 1GB |
| Raspberry pie 3 b + | In 2018, | 1.2ghz Broadcom BCM2837 (4 cores) | 1GB |
| Compute module 3+ | In 2019, | 1.2ghz Broadcom BCM2837B0 (4-core) | 1GB |
| Compute module 3+ Lite | In 2019, | 1.2ghz Broadcom BCM2837B0 (4-core) | 1GB |
| Raspberry sent 4 b | In 2019, | 1.5 GHz Broadcom BCM2711 | 1/2/4/8GB (2020) |
| Computing Module 4 | In 2020, | 1.5 GHz Broadcom BCM2711 | 1/2/4 / 8GB |
| Tree blackberry 400 | In 2020, | 1.8 GHz Broadcom BCM2711 | 4GB |
| Raspberry pie Pico | In 2021, | 133 MHz RP2040 | 264K |
Launched in late 2020, the Raspberry PI 400 was the first stand-alone computer for raspberry distribution. Although the CPU is 1.8ghz instead of 1.5ghz, the Raspberry PI 400 replaces the bare board as a keyboard with the same internal integration system as the Raspberry PI 4. It can be purchased separately or with a mouse, power supply, cable and official guide.
Raspberry PI Pico is an entirely different raspberry PI variant. It’s a microcontroller board that’s more Arduino than a traditional raspberry PI (more on that below).
Pico opens a new chapter in the history of raspberry pie
The Raspberry PI Pico, released in January 2021, was the company’s first microcontroller and marked the debut of its first custom chip, the RP2040 CPU. Whereas every raspberry PI was a fully functional computer that could boot into an operating system that was usually Linux, the $4 Pico is in the same category as Arduino. Pico is ideal for controlling motors, lights and sensors, and will run programs as soon as they are turned on, without waiting to start or worrying about losing data if unplugged in the event of an unsafe shutdown.
The Pico has three built-in ADCs (analog-to-digital converters) that other raspberry PI models don’t have. These converters allow us to connect directly to analog devices such as joysticks, potentiometers and distance sensors. See our article on raspberry PI Pico versus Arduino, and which raspberry PI is best for you, for a more detailed comparison between Pico, Arduino, and other raspberry PI’s.
Pico’s RP2040 chip has a bigger upgrade than the board itself. The 133MHz dual-core Cortex M0+ CPU was designed by the Raspberry PI Foundation and licensed to other vendors such as Pimoroni and Adafruit. They built an entire ecosystem of RP2040-powered microcontrollers themselves. Even Arduino is getting in on the act, releasing the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, which will have built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities.
4. The best-selling raspberry pie is…
The Pico has only been on the market for a few weeks, but 250,000 units have already been sold and another 750,000 are behind schedule. 2020 was the biggest year for raspberry PI sales, with 7.1 million units sold.
Raspberry PI has over 20 operating systems
Raspberry PI OS, a custom version of Debian, is the official raspberry PI operating system, but so far, it’s not the only option. From the raspberry-pi-friendly versions of Ubuntu and FreeBSD Linux to the unofficial versions of Android and ChromeOS, there are a number of different operating systems available. Some of the most interesting systems include:
- LibreELEC: Lightweight operating system that runs Kodi open source media software.
- RISC OS: This unique operating system is designed for ARM chips and claims to be faster than Linux.
- Chromium OS: Turn our raspberry PI into Chrome Box.
- Windows 10: Yes! We can install Windows 10 on Raspberry PI 4 (with some finesse), but it’s so slow that I don’t think you want to keep it running Windows 10.
- Lakka: This OS is designed for retro games and comes preloaded with a series of emulators.
6. There are two raspberry pies flying in the sky
The Iss has two Astro Pis, a specially modified raspberry PI B+ model. Both machines have been “spatially modified” (to fit in space) and are equipped with the official Raspberry PI Sense HAT sensor add-on board. The European Space Agency holds regular competitions where children can submit code to run on these devices.
Although the Pis is an older model, they recently underwent a storage upgrade, with the Astro Pi project sending a 256GB microSD card to the ISS to replace the 32GB card it is using.
7. The Raspberry PI Foundation wants products to last forever
The Raspberry PI Foundation will continue to actively manufacture and sell the PI B+, PI 2, PI 3B and other models, even as they become obsolete. The organization is reluctant to accept EOL (end-of-life) products because some industrial customers will still need to use the machines regardless of whether they are obsolete.
Upton told us in 2019: “To take a product out of production is to kill it. We’ve only discontinued five products so far.” He added that the only five models discontinued include the Raspberry PI 1A and the Raspberry PI 1B because the Raspberry PI 1A+ and B+ are better alternatives.”
Even after the PI 4B (2GB) drops to $35, you can still get the 1GB model for the same price, because some customers may still want it as a plug-and-play alternative.
8. Raspberry pie prices have actually fallen relative to inflation
The original Raspberry PI sold for $35 in 2012, the same price as today’s Raspberry PI 4B (2GB). But if you take inflation into account, $35 in 2012 is actually $39.88 today. For the same price, you’ll get:
- 40 times faster processor (1.5GHz quad-core vs 700 MHz single-core)
- 8x original RAM capacity (256GB vs 2GB)
- With wi-fi
- Dual monitor output vs single HDMI output
- USB 3.0 port VS supports ONLY USB 2
If $35 is still a lot, there are cheaper raspberry PI models. The Raspberry PI Zero costs $5, and the Raspberry PI Pico microcontroller board costs $4.
9. There’s a raspberry Pie competition every year
Yes, we can enter the raspberry Pie contest. Pi Wars is an annual robot competition. In this contest, we had to use raspberry PI to complete all the equipment construction. Teams competing in the Raspberry PI Competition compete against each other in a variety of challenges, such as navigating obstacle courses, popping balloons and navigating mazes.
In the Raspberry PI competition, there are both human-driven challenges and automated challenges. The next raspberry PI battle will take place in July 2021.
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