Raspberry PI Low-Cost PC Set For January Release

Computer charity, the Raspberry PI Foundation, has shown off populated boards from the first run of beta devices and says that if everything goes well, the low-cost educational computer should be ready by January.

The devices are currently undergoing electrical testing, alongside hardware and software, and providing there are no problems, the beta run will be auctioned off later this month.

If all goes to plan

“So far, they’ve been as solid as a rock, but we’re not counting our chickens before they’ve been hatched and inspected in very great detail to make sure that they are not mutant lizards,” said the foundation in a blog post.

The UK-based charity is devoted to promoting the study of computer science in schools and making computer learning more entertaining for students. The low-cost computer is part of this strategy and is designed to teach children programming in both the UK and in the developing world.

The computer is expected to cost around £15 and includes a 700MHz ARM11 processor, 128MB of SDRAM, an HDMI output, USB 2.0, memory card slots and will run a variety of open source software such as Ubuntu.

Raspberry PI showed off the potential power of the system in August when it released a video of it running first-person-shooter PC game Quake III.

A number of technology companies, including Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Google, have criticised the standard of ICT education in schools and have called for coding to be incorporated into the curriculum.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt has been among the most vocal of critics, saying that the government was not doing enough to support computer science in schools and that the UK was “throwing away” its computing heritage.