After publishing the first post many asked me "Dude what exactly is that Raspberry Pi",So this post is is an introductory piece about RPi.
As technologies like Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable tech are evolving in the present day scenario, Open Source technologies are playing key role in the evolution of such technologies. Raspberry Pi is one of such open source technologies which is widely being used by the developers and makers around the world in prototyping and building projects related to Electronics and IoT. There might be lots of questions tickling in the minds of many folks related to Raspberry Pi like what exactly it is and for what it is been used and what are its capabilities. Through this post am trying to answer all those questions.
As technologies like Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable tech are evolving in the present day scenario, Open Source technologies are playing key role in the evolution of such technologies. Raspberry Pi is one of such open source technologies which is widely being used by the developers and makers around the world in prototyping and building projects related to Electronics and IoT. There might be lots of questions tickling in the minds of many folks related to Raspberry Pi like what exactly it is and for what it is been used and what are its capabilities. Through this post am trying to answer all those questions.
What is Raspberry Pi?
According to
the official website of Raspberry Pi Foundation
“The Raspberry
Pi is a series of credit card-sized single-board computers developed in the
UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching
of basic computer science in schools.”
Raspberry Pi
is actually a pocket sized mother board to which you can connect a Tv Monitor,
A keyboard and a mouse to use it as a fully-fledged PC (You can also use it using
your laptop’s monitor too) . Raspberry Pi is designed and developed by
Raspberry Pi Foundation an educational charity institution based out of UK.
Initially it
was developed to cultivate interest among children to learn actual computer
science that is coding and hardware computing. Raspberry Pi got a huge
acceptance from the community of makers and developers around the world when
it was released.
List of different versions and models
of Raspberry Pi released with Specifications:
There are
two versions of Raspberry Pi, version 1 and 2.
There are
totally 5 models in Raspberry Pi 1 whose first model was released in February
2012 and a single model in Raspberry Pi 2 which was released in the month of
February this year.
Raspberry Pi:
Models
|
Introductory Price
|
Operating System
|
CPU
|
Memory
|
Storage
|
Graphics
|
Power
|
A
|
US$25
|
Linux (e.g. Raspbian), RISC OS, FreeBSD,NetBSD, Plan
9, Inferno
|
700 MHz single-core ARM1176JZF-S
|
256 MB RAM
|
SDHC slot
|
2.5 W
|
|
A+
|
US$20
|
Linux (e.g. Raspbian), RISC OS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Plan
9, Inferno
|
700 MHz single-core ARM1176JZF-S
|
256 MB RAM
|
MicroSDHC slot
|
1.0 W
|
|
B
|
US$35
|
Linux (e.g. Raspbian), RISC OS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Plan
9, Inferno
|
700 MHz single-core ARM1176JZF-S
|
256 MB RAM
|
SDHC slot
|
3.5 W
|
|
B+
|
US$35
|
Linux (e.g. Raspbian), RISC OS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Plan
9, Inferno
|
700 MHz single-core ARM1176JZF-S
|
512MB
RAM
|
MicroSDHC slot
|
3.0 W
|
|
Compute Model (CM)
|
US$30
|
Linux (e.g. Raspbian), RISC OS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Plan
9, Inferno
|
700 MHz
single-core ARM1176JZF-S
|
512MB
RAM
|
4 GB eMMC IC chip
|
3.0 W
|
Raspberry Pi 2:
Models
|
Introductory Price
|
Operating System
|
CPU
|
Memory
|
Storage
|
Graphics
|
Power
|
B
|
US$35
|
Same as
for Raspberry Pi 1 plus Windows
10 and additional variants of Linux such as Ubuntu and Android
|
900 MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7
|
1 GB
RAM |
Micro SDHC slot
|
4.5 W to 5.5 W
|
Video Input: Both the versions of Raspberry Pi
comes with a 15-pin MIPI camera interface (CSI) connector, used with the
Raspberry Pi camera or Raspberry Pi. Compute Model is equipped with 2xMIPI
camera.
Audio and Video Output: All Raspberry Pi Models come with a
HDMI port with video and audio out. It also comes with various PAL and NTSC standards, composite
video (PAL and NTSC) via RCA jack for connecting Display, For audio output
3.5mm phone jack is installed in Raspberry Pi.
Network: Model B and B+ of Raspberry Pi
version 1 and model B of Raspberry Pi version 2 comes with a 10/100 Mbit/s
Ethernet (8P8C) USB adapter on the third/fifth port of the USB hub (SMSC
lan9514-jzx).
Other Peripherals: All the Raspberry Pi models come with
GPIO pins plus the following, which can also be used as GPIO: UART, I²C bus,
SPI bus with two chip selects, I²S audio +3.3 V, +5 V, ground. Number
of GPIO pins varies from one model to other.
All the
raspberry pi models are powered using 5 V micro USB adapter or using GPIO
header.
Raspberry Pi
was released with an intention to develop interest among children to learn
computer science through basics. Community of makers and developers took it and
are doing some awesome things which completely changed the scenario and which
also initiated Raspberry Pi foundation to come up with more models with
improved design and powerful specifications.
Uses/Applications:
Basically it
depends on one’s creativity, imagination and knowledge base according to which he/she
use the Raspberry Pi. The most widely used applications of Raspberry Pi is
listed here.
- IOT: To build projects related Internet of Things. IoT technology is basically related with different components (sensors, Systems etc.,) connected in an internet network.
- Robotics: Robots ranging from Line following robot to Quad copters and a speech recognition bot to Video processing bots have been created using Raspberry Pi.Raspberry Pi is widely popular in robotics.
- Hardware Computing: This is basically around the concept how a component is connected to a PC using pins and ports and how it is accessed.
- For Teaching children the basic programming concept using scratch, sonic pi and python.
- Software Programming
- Other: For building web server, Internet loggers, Super Computers, Automation Bots etc.,
Lots of
amazing, interesting and also insane!! Projects have been done using Raspberry Pi.
As I mentioned earlier in this post it depends on one’s imagination and
creativity about how he/she uses the Pi.
Advantages:
- · Low Cost
- · Pocket Sized (Credit Card Sized actually ;-))
- · Light Weight
- · An Open Source Technology: That means its designs are available for free of cost on internet and one can build his own Raspberry Pi or even a modified Raspberry Pi using those designs.
- · Supports most of the Linux based operating systems depending on the specs.
- · Lower power consumption.
- · Wide range of applications.
Raspberry Pi
is actually a power packed package for a such a low cost which can do all
most all those things which a high end PC can do, But when it comes to some
applications which deals with huge data and high processing speeds Raspberry Pi
lags behind, But it’s definitely a boon for makers , developers open source
enthusiasts and all those who know and doesn’t know anything about Electronics but love
to tinker with things related to electronics for applying the knowledge they
have got and also experimenting and creating projects.
Thank you for reading this post, Hope this was useful for you.
Thank you for reading this post, Hope this was useful for you.
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