The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced the Raspberry P400, which has a compact keyboard with an ARM-based computer. Simply put it in the TV or using one of its two micro HDMI ports, insert a microSD card, attach a power cord and mouse, and you’ll find yourself a native computer for everyday tasks, coding or media playback. That is Available starting today As a standalone machine in a bundle with a mouse, power supply, microSD card, HDMI cable, and an initial guide for begin 100 for 70 days.
Asha is the form factor of the PI400, plus these optional bundled items make it more accessible and user friendly. This is especially important when you are selling an affordable computer, and especially when selling an accessible device to help teach children code. It looks more like a piece of consumer electronics than a base for a DIY project.
“It can sit under your Christmas tree and… if you open your gift at 9 a.m., you can sit in front of your television with a computer by 10 a.m.,” Eben Upton, founder of Raspberry Pi, tells me in an interview before the announcement.
The form factor of the Raspberry Pi 400 immediately catches the eye of an early home computer like the BBC Micro or the ZX Spectrum, and it’s no accident. However Raspberry Pi small computers have become a popular tool for hobbyists to do everything Creating inexpensive airplay receivers To Automated smart homesAt their core, they are designed as an accessible computer to help children learn code.
“The dream with Raspberry Pi has always been to lure people to buy a PC and then trick them into becoming computer programmers,” says Pt. “That’s what happened to me. I was tempted to buy a BBC Micro and then all of a sudden I became a software engineer.”
Aside from its keyboard and form factor, the Raspberry Pi 400 is a similar computer Raspberry P4 last year. It gets a slightly faster quad-core 1.8GHz ARM Cortex-A72 CPU, with PI4, 4GB RAM, Gigabyte Ethernet, Bluetooth 5.0 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi 1.5GHz. There is a pair of micro HDMI ports that can each output 4K / 60Hz, two USB 3.0 ports, and a single USB 2.0 port. Power is provided by a USB-C port, a microSD card slot for storage, and a GPIO header for connecting many more specialized devices.
While the interior is similar to previous Raspberry Pi devices, the exterior of the PI400 is nothing. Depending on which region you buy it in, the computer is built into either a -78- or — key keyboard, which has the same design as most compact laptop keyboards. On launch, there are six different keyboard layouts – UK, US, German, French, Italian and Spanish – and Upton tells me that soon there will be additional types in the Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Portuguese and Japanese markets.
Thanks, this Raspberry Pi is not the first keyboard – it is Last year published a standard without a computer built into it. I say thank you because many of those early 80’s home computers had a terrific keyboard, and producing a practice keyboard should help Raspberry Pi avoid a serious mishap. Upton tells me that the company’s approach was inspired by how PC maker Acorn Computers used it. Single keyboard As a basis for Acorn Atom Computer. In fact, onton says that keen observers may have noticed signs of the development of the PI400 hidden inside its single keyboard, which has a slightly unnecessary amount of space inside where the PI400’s computer now sits.
It’s not just kids learning the code, to whom the company wants to sell PI400. “Who will he help? It’s supposed to be someone who needs a computer, “says Upton. Interestingly, it also includes businesses. Upton told me that the company sees the Raspberry P400 used for corporate desktop machines or call center agents. Interestingly, the Raspberry Pi 4 and P400 have two HDMI outputs as one reason why two monitors are the default for most users.
That said, Ptpton acknowledges that the P400’s pink and white color scheme may not be for every business interest. “We need to make it gray and black and it will break our hearts,” he jokes, “we make our products pink and white and we think it’s the right color and then we get kicked and screamed.” To gray and black. “
It would have seemed unrealistic a few years ago to dream of office fees full of ARM-based computers when processors were largely considered too little power for anything beyond phones and tablets, but in a year when the Apple moment is starting Switch his Mac computers to architecture, That future does not look so harsh.
PtPton calls Apple’s next switch the “recognition” of ARM’s position as the actual PC architecture, and says it’s proof that the PC isn’t synonymous with any more x86 processors. In the long run, they say the change should encourage more developers to create or optimize their software to run better on ARM, and that whatever happens on the OS Cause benefits the open-source ecosystem and ultimately Raspberry Pi. Is.
Unless you’re ready to do some serious tweaking, the Raspberry Pi 400 will always be a Linux PC. It’s perfect if you’re looking to learn a code, but it’s still becoming an unfortunate hurdle for many Windows and Mac owners who are looking for a simple machine for everyday computer tasks. For others, the functions of web browsing, email answering, and productivity that are powerful enough to make a PI400 can already be fined by a smartphone.
But with a starting price of 70, the Raspberry Pi 400 is even less expensive than most budget handsets, and it comes with a keyboard that’s big enough for proper typing. For many, and especially for students, this is exactly what happens during the year when many people are still working from home and need a computer.
Raspberry P400 is available from today. The $ 100 kit is now available in the UK, US and France, with availability in Italy, Germany and Spain next week. Meanwhile, the standalone version of the UK 70 is now available in the UK, US, France and Germany and is coming to Italy and Spain next week. It will be released in India, Australia, Australia and New Zealand later this year.
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