Raspberry Pi is a credit card-sized SBC (single-board computer). The first Raspberry Pi model was released on 19 February, 2012. It had 1 USB port, 256MB Ram and no Ethernet port. The latest model of Raspberry Pi is released in February 2015 having:
- 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU
- 1GB RAM
- 4 USB Ports
- 40 GPIO pins
- Full HDMI Port
- Ethernet Port
- Combined 3.5mm audio jack & composite video
- Camera interface (CSI)
- Display interface (DSI)
- Micro SD card slot
- VideoCore IV 3D graphics core
Usage Of Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi has been used for hacking, robotics, programming, small video games, servers and much more. Here is a short list of coolest things ever made with Raspberry Pi:
1. Pi Robots
It’s quite cool to built your very own Robot with Rpi. There are dozens of projects to built a Robot with Raspberry Pi. Rpi MagPi has built the same robot as shown in the picture.
2. Pi Hacking
Second most common use of Raspberry Pi is Security Hacking. It’s quite easy and handy to bring a Pi and do the magic.
3. Raspberry Pi – Web Servers
Home based small servers can be made with parts of Raspberry Pi
4. Raspberry Pi Quadcopter
Another great project of Raspberry Pi, a quadcopter. See this in live action here on youtube:
Technical Specifications
| Raspberry Pi Model B | Raspberry Pi Model B+ | |
| Chip | Broadcom BCM2835 SoC (a) | Broadcom BCM2835 SoC |
| Core architecture | ARM11 | ARM11 |
| CPU | 700 MHz Low Power ARM1176JZFS Applications Processor | 700 MHz Low Power ARM1176JZFS Applications Processor |
| GPU | Dual Core VideoCore IV® Multimedia Co-Processor Provides Open GL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode Capable of 1Gpixel/s, 1.5Gtexel/s or 24GFLOPs with texture filtering and DMA infrastructure | Dual Core VideoCore IV® Multimedia Co-ProcessorWith Open GL ES 2.0, hardware-accelerated OpenVG, and 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decodeCapable of 1Gpixel/s, 1.5Gtexel/s or 24GFLOPs with texture filtering and DMA infrastructure |
| Memory | 512MB SDRAM | 512MB SDRAM |
| Operating System | Boots from SD card, running a version of the Linux operating system | Boots from Micro SD card, running a version of the Linux operating system |
| Dimensions | 85.6 x 53.98 x 17mm | 85 x 56 x 17mm |
| Power | Micro USB socket 5V, 1.2A | Micro USB socket 5V, 2A |
| Ethernet Port | 10/100 BaseT Ethernet socket (b) | 10/100 BaseT Ethernet socket |
| Video Output | HDMI (rev 1.3 & 1.4) (c); Composite RCA (PAL and NTSC) (d) | HDMI (rev 1.3 & 1.4) Composite RCA (PAL and NTSC) |
| Audio Output | 3.5mm jack (e), HDMI | 3.5mm jack, HDMI |
| USB | Dual USB Connector (f) | 4 x USB 2.0 Connector |
| GPIO Connector | 26-pin 2.54 mm (100 mil) expansion header: 2×13 strip. Providing 8 GPIO pins plus access to I²C, SPI and UART as well as +3.3 V, +5 V and GND supply lines (g) | 40-pin 2.54 mm (100 mil) expansion header: 2×20 strip Providing 27 GPIO pins as well as +3.3 V, +5 V and GND supply lines |
| Camera Connector | 15-pin MIPI Camera Serial Interface (CSI-2) (h) | 15-pin MIPI Camera Serial Interface (CSI-2) |
| Display Connector | Display Serial Interface (DSI) 15 way flat flex cable connector with two data lanes and a clock lane (j) | Display Serial Interface (DSI) 15 way flat flex cable connector with two data lanes and a clock lane |
| Memory Card Slot | SDIO | SDIO |
| Price(Price may vary in different stores) | $43.85 | $39.95 |
Conclusion
In my point of view, Raspberry Pi is best for tasks that needs a computer but aren’t much bigger to spend a lot of money. Things I like about Rpi is that it isn’t so costly and easily modifiable. Thank for reading my article, I’d love to listen feedback from you.