Linux Fans Gorge on Raspberry Pi ($35 PC is a smash hit!)

Raspberry Pi is the name given to an ultra-low-cost computer that went on sale recently for just $35. The bare-bones PC, which is built to run a few different flavors of Linux, is capable of hooking up to a mouse, keyboard, HDTV and Ethernet. Initial interest has been strong -- the first batch quickly sold out.

Frantic buyers cleaned out the shelves of two UK retailers offering a small US$35 Linux computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

So, a question from a technological neophyte: what would this little computer be capable of?

Actually, not of too much. There are several reasons for that.

First, the CPU on the board is ARM, not Intel. This means that there is no general purpose commercial software that will run on it. You'd need to compile it from sources, and that is not trivial (besides, you need those sources.)

Second, the OS is not Windows or Mac OS. It's Linux. Linux cannot run Windows software (except through a very buggy non-emulation layer called WINE. Haven't tried it in ages. Besides, ARM would require a true emulator anyway.) Linux has its own set of software, and that set is large. There is probably a hundred text editors of all kinds. But MS Word is not among them. Perhaps {Open,Libre}Office will do, if you are ready for a challenge. But OpenOffice does not run well on micropower computers. It's pretty large even for modern desktops.

Third, I don't see much of a storage on the board. I haven't looked closely at what they have there, but many similar boards (there are quite a few, like SheevaPlug) only have enough to boot the OS. Past that point you can plug an external USB HDD, for example, or an SD card.

I personally can think of very few uses of such a computer, unless you are into hardware hacking. Electronics enthusiasts can use this board for many purposes - they can build a custom webcam, or a custom alarm system, or a music player, or a robot, or many other things. But all these things involve building.

Perhaps if you connect a monitor and a keyboard you can use the board to browse the Web. You can make a cheap kitchen appliance where the wife can watch news while working on something important. But I don't expect this little CPU of being a speed demon. Rendering of an average ad-infested Web site will take forever. Hanging an iPad on the wall might be easier (of course tinkerers would reject this out of principle - if they haven't built it themselves then it's not worthy of using.)

I had my share of experience with underpowered CPUs because I work with embedded systems. However in embedded world you choose your hardware for the task - and not more than that. Any extra memory or performance will be only wasted money, so you pick the smallest IC that you can get away with. General purpose computers can't be selected this way. You need to have some minimum level of performance before you can hope to run Firefox on it (and don't forget a couple of GB of RAM in that case.)

In other words, if Metcal or Weller are not household names to you then you should spend the $35 on something else. This board is only good for experimenters; it's a component for larger, custom systems.

When I first read the article, I was thinking that it could be integrated into other appliances to give it network/Internet connectivity with a small bit processing capability.

That is something you can do, but it won't be easy. It all depends on the appliance. Oftentimes you will be better off with other products. For example, Lantronix sells Ethernet to RS232 (LVTTL33) adapters built into an RJ45 jack.

You can see the list of R-PI hardware here. To summarize, it has:

USB
Video output
Audio output
One Ethernet interface
GPIO, I²C, I²S, SPI.

For example, let's say your appliance is controlled over RS232. Can you connect it to this board? Yes, it is possible. But there are catches.

Here is one such catch. Will your device be designed to work in a headless mode (without the monitor and the keyboard?) I'd say yes, if your appliance is some pool pump, for example. But then you need to provide configuration software to do it remotely, and you need to have some buttons to reset to DHCP or to some known static IP address. You can tie that button to a GPIO pin. But then you need to write some Linux software that deals with the button and reconfigures the board. Then you need to grab your trusty copy of MS Visual Studio for C# and start hacking on the configuration software. You still need to pay $35 for the board.

Or alternatively you buy a Lantronix device for $50. It comes with all the software that you need. You just connect +3.3V power, TXD, RXD and you are good to go.

Much depends on your appliance. If you want to connect your weather station to the Internet you will need to reverse-engineer a likely proprietary protocol, then write your own software for the R-Pi board. I actually have such a need. But I will not take the R-Pi route, it's too much work and I have other things to do in my life. I will get an x86 board, run Windows on it, and use the software that came with my weather station. It will cost me 10x more than the R-Pi board, but it will save me a month of work.

The hardware is available, and if you are willing to do some hacking then you are certainly welcome to it. The board is capable of limited processing, and it is well priced to build, for example, an Ethernet-controlled cat door or fancy Christmas lights. But you must be pretty fluent in electronics, both hardware and software, to make use of the board. Good knowledge of Linux is mandatory.

It would be most useful where you need a tiny server. For example: you run a small website dispensing some low-volume private data and communications that the government does not approve of. A microserver would make it possible to move the site around like those pirate radio stations of years ago - only there was never a pirate radio station that literally fits in your pocket, can be carried around by someone on foot, and plugged in anywhere there’s an open Ethernet hole on a router that leads to the Internet. Set up one of those dynamic domain names that can be reassigned from a smartphone app, and you’re Bond; James Bond.

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