David Braben Making A USB PC For £15?

News Reader · Post by **News Reader** » May 9th, 2011, 16:00

David Braben Making A USB PC For £15?
David Braben, he of Elite fame, has unveiled a PC that fits on a USB stick, the Raspberry PI. He has also unveiled a brand new way of pronouncing "obfuscated". The device has an HDMI in at one end, and a USB out at the other, letting you plug it directly into a television, and [...]

Author: John Walker
Category: RockPaperShotgun david-braben Raspberry PI tech USB PC
Publish Date: Mon, 09 May 2011 14:17:40 +0000

David Braben, he of Elite fame, has unveiled a PC that fits on a USB stick, the Raspberry PI. He has also unveiled a brand new way of pronouncing "obfuscated". The device has an HDMI in at one end, and a USB out at the other, letting you plug it directly into a television, and then attach a keyboard. Braben's rather egalitarian idea is that it would be cheap enough ("Ten to fifteen pounds,") that every child could own one, with the idea that they could learn to program. It sounds really promising. But are there some issues, too?

(more...)

Read more... - Read comments...

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Post by **FatherJack** » May 9th, 2011, 17:21

I like this idea, not so much as a low-cost teaching device, as I think it'd need to be boxed with a USB hub, PSU, VGA/Composite/HDMI outputs and network, but that it's effectively a functioning PC yet so small and cheap.

Palm-size PCs typically cost £200-£500, but assuming something like this could be networked, would produce an amazing amount of computing power per square metre if run as a cluster.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » May 9th, 2011, 17:28

It already has HDMI, so DVI is doable with just a cable, not sure about VGA.

A usb hub would be a handy addition.

I want one of these, just to make an altoids tin PC.

Post by **ProfHawking** » May 9th, 2011, 18:27

Interesting gadget, but yeah i can't see it being much use in it's current form.
I'd rather see it at £30 with a microSD slot (to load OS onto), two USB ports, and Ethernet.
Anything less is not what i would call a a usable PC really.

Stoat · Post by **Stoat** » May 9th, 2011, 18:40

You're heading in to Beagleboard territory there.

Post by **ProfHawking** » May 9th, 2011, 18:53

Yeah maybe, but can you call anything less a PC?

More like some kind of embedded solution perhaps, useful only for certain situations.
Anyway, if he can do all of that with £15, then £30 with those extras is probably realistic. Beagle boards start out at more than three times that amount.