Raspberry Pi

People were skeptical of the Raspberry Pi when it was first announced that a credit-card sized computer for $35 sounded like a fantasy. Which is why, when it started shipping, the Raspberry Pi created a sensation of excitement. The demands for the minicomputer was outperforming what the foundation had expected. So, what is about the Raspberry Pi that tests the patience of a hardware-enthusiast?
One can use this device to watch videos, surf the web, or to hack, learn and make an open source project with the board. The Raspberry Pi is a flexible platform with tremendous support for fun, utility and experimentation. Here are just a few different ways how a Raspberry Pi can be used.

General Purpose Computing
In fact, Raspberry Pi is itself a computer and you can use it as one, make the pi boot into a graphical desktop environment with a web browser, which is lot of what we use computers for these days. In addition, install variety of software like LibreOffice productivity suite for working with documentation and spreadsheets.

Learning to Program

Raspberry Pi is meant as an educational tool to encourage young generation to experiment with the computers. It comes pre-loaded with interpreters and compilers for Python and Scratch (graphical programming language from MIT).
But you are not limited to Python and Scratch, you can write programs for Raspberry Pi in many different programming languages like C, Ruby, Java and Perl.

Project Platform

The Raspberry Pi distinguishes itself from a regular computer not only in its price, size, processor and architecture, but also because it has the ability to integrate with electronic projects.

Media Center

The Raspberry Pi has both HDMI and composite video outputs, it's easy to connect to televisions. It has enough processing power to play full screen video in high definition. To enable a Raspberry Pi as a media center, XBMC (Xbox Media Center) have ported their project to the Raspberry Pi. XBMC can play many different media formats and its interface is designed extremely friendly with large buttons so that it can be easily controlled from the couch.

Raspberry Pi, a microcomputer is based on the ARM processors that uses a family of instruction set architectures based on a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) developed by a British company, ARM Holdings.
The term RISC abbreviates Reduced Instruction Set Computing. It is focused on a small set of instructions which simplifies the hardware design and improves the processor performance.


Where can you buy it from?

In the context of Nepal, Raspberry Pi can be purchased from Himalayan Solution Industry, Gyaneshwor (Contact: 9841827527).

Despite being a $35 microcomputer, it is a little expensive in Nepal. But, if you have contact with friends and family abroad, then shipping via online shopping stores like Amazon would be sensible and more economical.



Source: Electronics Project Club Magazine (KEC)