The new Raspberry Pi, is a novel idea, it is a computer about the same size as a USB stick which costs less than a new PC game. The concept is to get kids interested in computer programming.

The Raspberry Pi is certainly not going to win any design awards for appearance, but it should hit store shelves shortly. This working computer is a product of David Braben and his Cambridge colleagues, the goal is to make it available for only $25.

According to a description on the foundation website it says “We plan to develop, manufacture, and distribute an ultra-low-cost computer, for use in teaching computer programming to children. We expect this computer to have many other applications both in the developed and the developing world.”

The system is :

700MHz ARM11
128MB of SDRAM
OpenGL ES 2.0
1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
Composite and HDMI video output
USB 2.0
SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
General-purpose I/O
Open software (Ubuntu, Iceweasel, KOffice, Python)

This isn't the first time that an inexpensive computer has been made available to kids in developing countries so there are many hurdles for the group to tackle, especially with their limited resources.

KitGuru says: Will this help kids get into programming?

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