At $5, the Raspberry Pi Zero is the world’s cheapest computer.
Raspberry Pi is a series of single-board computers, no bigger than a credit card, that allows you learn and practice programming using fun and practical projects. It got really popular in the UK, and trainers use it today as an introductory programming tool for newbies.
Raspberry Pi Zero, the latest version of the computer to be released, is so cheap, Raspberry Pi is giving it away as a freebie (after buying the December issue of The MagPi magazine). Prior to this, Chip was the cheapest computer in the world, at $9.
What strikes me funny is that despite the incredibly small size, the system specs are better than my first ever desktop computer, by far. Compare the 1GHz processor and 512Mb of memory (the same amount of RAM in the iPad 2 in 2011, the first Nook Color and Kindle Fire) with my 533Mhz and 256MB RAM, and you have a good idea how far we’ve come. The device also has a microSD card slot, a mini-HDMI slot and two microUSB slots, while running a custom version of Linux called Raspbian.
Raspberry Pi says: “Of all the things we do at Raspberry Pi, driving down the cost of computer hardware remains one of the most important. Even in the developed world, a programmable computer is a luxury item for a lot of people, and every extra dollar that we ask someone to spend decreases the chance that they’ll choose to get involved. The original Raspberry Pi Model B and its successors put a programmable computer within reach of anyone with $20–35 to spend … At the start of this year, we began work on an even cheaper Raspberry Pi to help these people take the plunge.”
Take a look at the device here.
Photo Credit: Raspberry Pi Blog
