Raspberry Pi microcomputer reaches 1 million made in UK
Raspberry Pi, the super-cheap micro PC designed to get kids coding, has sold a staggering 1.75 million units, 1 million of them made here in the UK.
Raspberry Pi, the super-cheap micro PC designed to get kids coding, has hit two major landmarks -- it's sold a staggering 1.75 million units, and 1 million of them were made here in the UK.
It's an amazing success story for a project that began life in 2006. Since last year the Pi has been built near Bridgend in South Wales, in a factory run by Sony.
"Sony's Pencoed factory has just won a slew of trophies at the British Factory Awards," says the Raspberry Pi Foundation on its website. "They took home the Best Factory award, Best Electronics Factory, Best Factory for Innovation -- and were highly commended for their work on minimising energy use and environmental impact.
"They're great to work with, their quality control process and attention to detail is exceptional (as those of you with UK Pis have been happy to tell us), and we can't think of anyone who deserves those awards more."
Raspberry Pi sold its millionth unit back in January, and in May this year launched the Pi eye, a £20 camera for photos and HD video. It has its own app store, and has inspired a slew of fascinating homebrew projects, such as these smart glasses that subtitle foreigners in real time.
The Pi is available in two units: the £28 model B, and a slimmer, more energy efficient model A, with less memory and no Ethernet port, which is £20. You can also get the model B with an 8GB SD card for £33, which has the specially written NOOBS software preinstalled.
As a very basic computer, it's not immediately obvious where to start with the Pi. Fortunately, we've a bunch of useful how-tos on the Raspberry Pi here on CNET:
- How to get started with the Raspberry Pi
- 25 fun things to do with the Raspberry Pi
- How to install Android on the Raspberry Pi
- How to turn your Raspberry Pi into an XBMC media centre
And here's Luke with a handy video:
What have you cooked up with your Pi? Is it a great way to introduce children to complex coding, or is it just gathering dust in a cupboard? Leave a comment below, or over on our bare-bones Facebook page.