PC Peripherals Raspberry Pi - The £25 computer to teach youngsters real computing skills

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Skilled
Psst, kid... Wanna learn how to hack?

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Analysis Despite all the excitement and expectation encompassing the RaspberryPi, the most remarkable thing about this low-power credit card-sized computer is its price tag: little more than £20 for a fully functional system capable of, among many things, 1080p video playback and hardware-accelerated graphics.

What's inside?

The Pi is powered by a 700MHz ARM-compatible processor with hardware support for OpenGL ES 2.0 and Blu-ray-grade playback (1080p30 H.264), and features 256MB of RAM, TV, HDMI and audio outputs, a USB port, a Flash memory card slot, 100MBit Ethernet and a number of I/O pins for a serial port and general purpose hacking. This is all fitted on a low-cost 85.60mm x 53.98mm board that's about 20mm high, weighs 40g and is powered from a 5V supply.

There's no onboard chunky flash memory: when the board is powered up, the GPU starts executing instructions from a small boot ROM that locates the GPU's firmware and a kernel for the ARM core in a FAT16 or FAT32 partition on the memory card or USB drive plugged into the Pi. Once the firmware and kernel are running, the operating system can be booted from the memory card, USB drive or over the network.

The reliance on removable boot memory also ensures the kit can't be bricked, not even by the most inquisitive or vindictive schoolchildren.

Psst, kid... Wanna learn how to hack? ? The Register
 
^It has only a 100 Mbps Ethernet so won't be that great as a file server.
Sent from my Samsung Focus using Board Express
 
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