A couple of days ago I posted a comment about the one year anniversary of the official launch of the Raspberry Pi project, and the replies from some associates made me realize that not everyone is aware of this fascinating device. And so, for those who are curious but too lazy to check Wikipedia, here is a brief summary.

The Raspberry Pi is a basic computer system that fits on a single circuit board about the size of a credit card. It was developed in Britain as a means of promoting the teaching of computer science and engineering in schools. However it has also been in demand by hobbyists as a simple video game system, and as a powerful robotics controller.


It isn't exactly powerful, but it does run Linux on a 700MHz processor (compared to 2000MHz on the most basic desktops) and 512MB of RAM (compared to a few thousand on a PC). Instead of a hard drive or DVD drive, the Raspberry Pi runs off of a flash memory card, although some hobbyists are modding it to use cloud storage instead.
 

Perhaps the most admirable quality though is that it is being sold at around $25 - $35 depending on exactly which features are required. (The more expensive model includes ethernet networking and a spare USB port)

So although it may not seem like much to some people, to many educators and hobbyists a $30 computer is truly an amazing accomplishment, and certainly worth commenting on its first anniversary!