{"id":2725,"date":"2012-03-11T18:43:33","date_gmt":"2012-03-11T23:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/?p=2725"},"modified":"2012-03-11T18:49:04","modified_gmt":"2012-03-11T23:49:04","slug":"raspberry-pi-the-shopping-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/austringer.net\/wp\/index.php\/2012\/03\/11\/raspberry-pi-the-shopping-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Raspberry Pi: The Shopping List"},"content":{"rendered":"

I ordered a Raspberry Pi<\/a> Model B computer from Newark<\/a>, so now I’m waiting for stock to catch up with the truly phenomenal initial demand. <\/p>\n

If you are wondering what the Raspberry Pi is, it is a small computer board based on a Broadcom System On Chip (SoC). The SoC is ARM-based, so the operating systems offered so far are Linux distributions. The board has a CPU, GPU, 256MB of Ram, an SD card interface, a USB host interface, audio output, Ethernet network port, and video output via composite or HDMI interfaces. And it costs $35.<\/p>\n

The Raspberry Pi is the brainchild of a United Kingdom non-profit organization that aims to make a low-cost programming platform to re-invigorate interest in computer science among students. Since computers have turned into consumer devices rather than primarily being programming platforms, students don’t have a low-cost way to spark an interest in programming itself. Until, the Raspberry Pi folks hope, now.<\/p>\n

But the Raspberry Pi is just now starting to be distributed in quantity. As the device comes, it is just a computer board a little bigger than a credit card. It doesn’t even have a case. So there is some shopping to be done to trick out your Raspberry Pi once you order it.<\/p>\n

The first order of business is power. The way I’ve seen this discussed is to get a powered USB hub and micro-USB power cable. The Raspberry Pi’s power plug is a micro-USB interface. That port only hooks up power, so there’s no problem hooking that into a powered USB hub that you’ll also use for peripherals.<\/p>\n