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Total Votes : 4

seana11 wrote:
alberthrocks wrote:
I just hope the general public doesn't try buying one of these...


Why not? They're a great piece of technology, even if that technology is very much mainstream. It's great to get something into the hands of kids that they can program with. Calculators are fine and all, but this stuff is cheaper, and it has exponentially grater possibilities. It's also cool to have a cellphone sized computer that isn't locked in, like so many vendors make them. I really can't see any disadvantages to them (well, other than speed restrictions, but that's what you get from an ARM).
Calculators are much more widespread. I see no problem with the general public getting involved with these, except for the danger that it could limit supplies to hobbyists with cool designs for them.
Raspberry Pi on cnet

Beta board Auction

With these two new developments, release date in January, according to cnet, and the beta board auction, it look like Raspberry Pi is closer than ever to becoming a reality. I, for one, am very excited about this.
As am I! One thing that occurred to me last night was that power consumption is estimated at 1 Watt or so, which means that even a beefy 1100mAh Li-Poly battery would only last an hour with this. Sad
KermMartian wrote:
As am I! One thing that occurred to me last night was that power consumption is estimated at 1 Watt or so, which means that even a beefy 1100mAh Li-Poly battery would only last an hour with this. :(


Isn't 1 watt kinda light in terms of power consumption? I know that many laptops and tablets pull more than that and have longer battery lives. Or do you mean just 1 AA type rechargeable battery?
Umm, I think you're not very familiar with types of rechargeable batteries. The kind of batteries I'm referencing are frequently used with small handheld devices; cf. http://www.sparkfun.com/categories/54/ and look for things labelled Li-Poly or Lithium-Polymer.
KermMartian wrote:
As am I! One thing that occurred to me last night was that power consumption is estimated at 1 Watt or so, which means that even a beefy 1100mAh Li-Poly battery would only last an hour with this. Sad

How are you doing your maths? The Raspberry Pi runs off a 5V supply, so 1W would equate to a 200mA current. A 1100mAh battery should therefore last five and a half hours.
Hahahahahaha, wow. What the heck was I thinking? Apparently my brain no longer talks to my fingers. Sad Somehow 1Wh became 1Ah in my mind. Sad
Heh, blame it on festive cheer. Smile I'm not sure how good my figures are either, for what it's worth, and for any portable use you'd need to factor in the screen (which tends to be quite a power-hungry component).
benryves wrote:
Heh, blame it on festive cheer. Smile I'm not sure how good my figures are either, for what it's worth, and for any portable use you'd need to factor in the screen (which tends to be quite a power-hungry component).
Indeed, one of the largest. I'm hoping there's a nice easy way to underclock the Pi or put it in some fun low-power states when possible.
It should be, since it's a phone chip. Phones are designed to be in standby 95% of the time!
willrandship wrote:
It should be, since it's a phone chip. Phones are designed to be in standby 95% of the time!

What do you mean by "it's a phone chip"? I know the ARM is often used in phones but it was designed as a desktop chip; its design makes it suitable for low-power use, however. Don't sell it short! Wink
benryves wrote:
willrandship wrote:
It should be, since it's a phone chip. Phones are designed to be in standby 95% of the time!

What do you mean by "it's a phone chip"? I know the ARM is often used in phones but it was designed as a desktop chip; its design makes it suitable for low-power use, however. Don't sell it short! Wink
Heh, quite so. I think the phoen applications were the egg to the ARM's desktop chicken, to abuse a metaphor.
I was referring to the specific SoC they are using, not arm in general Razz
The VideoCore line (of which the RPi's Cpu is a part) was used in the Nokia N8 through 701 phones, admittedly an older version. However, their later versions are also targeted at android devices. So, I still say it uses a phone chip.
benryves wrote:
willrandship wrote:
It should be, since it's a phone chip. Phones are designed to be in standby 95% of the time!

What do you mean by "it's a phone chip"? I know the ARM is often used in phones but it was designed as a desktop chip; its design makes it suitable for low-power use, however. Don't sell it short! Wink


Doesn't really matter. Pretty sure nobody makes a CPU that doesn't have at least one low power state these days.

Besides, CPU power usage also varies off of load, so even if it is just idle it will draw less power.
Eben of Raspberry Pi wrote:
Happy New Year!

We've built our first small batch of production boards. Apart from a minor error in the PCB design, they work very nicely, so we've decided to make ten of them available for auction on eBay. We have parts in stock for our first 10,000 units, and expect to be in volume production by the end of January.

As always, for more details, check out our website at:

http://www.raspberrypi.org

Eben Upton
Executive Director, Raspberry Pi Foundation
Thanks for sharing that, Seana. They had indeed posted something along those same lines on their website, and although I think the demand is going to make it difficult to get in on those first 10,000 units any time before February or March, I'm glad that they're finally ramping up production.
I just drool at the thought that my PC consumes as much power as at least 200 of these, and yet performs at nowhere near that level Razz
It looks like manufacturing has recently begun for the actual public! I don't see the boards in the RPi store yet, but we can be sure that they will be available for purchase amazingly soon. Very Happy Let's prepare to get some! I really hope Seana is able to create the tablet computer discussed in the thread at http://cemete.ch/t7094!
technomonkey76 wrote:
It looks like manufacturing has recently begun for the actual public! I don't see the boards in the RPi store yet, but we can be sure that they will be available for purchase amazingly soon. Very Happy Let's prepare to get some! I really hope Seana is able to create the tablet computer discussed in the thread at http://cemete.ch/t7094!
Well, I wouldn't count on Seana, but one of us can probably pull it off. Wink


willrand: 1W at 5V = 200mA. Your computer pulls about 200W at 120V, correct? Assuming something like 90% efficiency, that's 1.85A at 5V and 12V (and 3.3V and 1.25ishV, if you want to get technical). So it's more like 10 times less power.
actually, Watts are the real measurement of power draw, not volts or amps. Watts are a measurement of work, whereas amperage is a measurement of current and voltage is a measurement of potential difference. So, unless I got crazily off somewhere, 200 times is about right.
  
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