Raspberry PI is a low cost small-board computer, an only-board computer, or a simple-board computer (SBC) developed in the UK by the Raspberry PI Foundation with the purpose of promoting computer science in schools.

Raspberry PI is a small-board computer

They can be used as content servers, linked to a TV, and, of course, as a computer. Raspberry PI is one of the most popular products thanks to its attractive price as well as its versatility.

It consists of a small board of 85 x 54 millimeters (a little bit bigger that a pack of cigarettes) with a Broadcom chip BCM2835, a ARM processor up to 1 GHz of speed, GPU VideoCore IV, and up to 512 megabytes of RAM memory. The price is usually under €40, or US$30, that is one of the reasons for its popularity. As a matter of fact, by late 2013, it sold more than two million units worldwide.

Raspberry PI’s low cost is one of the reasons

Nowadays, there are two different models of Raspberry PI. The first one, model A, differentiates from model B, because it has one USB port, it does not have an Ethernet controller, and it has 256MB of RAM, contrary to the 512MB of model B; and, is less expensive than the latter model. Model B has two USB ports, and an Ethernet controller 10/100. Despite model A not having a RJ45 port, it can connect to the web using a USB-Ethernet adapter.

One of the most common uses for the small board is to use it as a media center to play movies thanks to a XBMC, which is turn it into a substitute device of Google’s Chromecast de Google, or Apple TV. It also works as a centralized music player (Pi-Fi), or even work as domestic control center for our houses with projects such as PiHome. What is more, the Raspberry PI is a video vigilance system, and it can create a remote control tank (Raspberry Tank).