The Raspberry Pi is a series of low-cost, palm-sized single-board computers developed by Raspberry Pi Foundation in the UK. The intention behind the creation of the Raspberry Pi is to promote the teaching of basic computer skills in schools, which it serves very well. Raspberry Pi has expanded its footprint well beyond its intended purpose by penetrating the embedded systems market and computer science research.
Note
This is the home page of Raspberry Pi Foundation: http://www.raspberrypi.org.
The Raspberry Pi is manufactured with licensed agreements with Newark element14, RS Components, Allied Electronics, and Egoman. These companies manufacture and sell the Raspberry Pi. The hardware is the same across all manufacturers.
The following table displays the URLs of the manufacturers' websites, where you can shop for Pi and related items online:
|
Manufacturer |
Website |
|---|---|
|
Newark element14 | |
|
RS Components | |
|
Egoman | |
|
Allied Electronics |
You can also shop for Pi and the other third-party add-ons at the following links:
The following are, at the time of writing this, the major models of Raspberry Pi:
Model A (not in production; discontinued in favor of the production of later and upgraded models)
Model A+ (currently in production and available for purchase)
Model B (available for purchase but not in production)
Model B+ (currently in production and available for purchase)
Raspberry Pi 2 Model B (currently in production and available for purchase)
Note
Check out the Product page of Raspberry Pi at http://www.raspberrypi.org/products/.
Additionally, Raspberry Pi is also available in a more flexible form factor intended for industrial and embedded applications. It is known as Compute Module. A Compute Module prototyping kit is also made available by the foundation.
Note
Check out the following URLs for the Compute Module and Compute Module development kit, respectively:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/products/compute-module/
http://www.raspberrypi.org/products/compute-module-development-kit/
The following table compares the currently available models of Pi:
The following image shows the top view of the Raspberry Pi Model B front:
The following image shows the top view of the flip side of Raspberry Pi Model B:
The following image shows the top view of the Raspberry Pi Model B+ front:
The following image shows the top view of the flip side of Raspberry Pi Model B+:
The following image shows the top view of the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B front. The location of the connectors and important ICs (integrated circuits) on the board is not different from Pi B+:
We will be using Raspberry Pi 2 Model B throughout this book. However, all the applications and programs in this book will work on all the models of Pi.