Pradeep Singh | 27th April 2016
The Raspberry Pi is a Single Board Computer developed by Raspberry Pi Foundation. It is widely popular as a small, inexpensive computing board among experimenters, hobbyists, educators and technology enthusiasts. You can connect it to Computer Monitor / TV, standard Keyboard / Mouse and use it as a basic Computer; or connect Sensors to its GPIO Pins and use it as a Controller Board.
Raspberry Pi was developed in England, United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intent to promote the teaching of basic computer science in schools and developing countries. However, very soon it became popular for DIY and IoT projects.
Till date several generations of Raspberry Pi have been released. Here you can see the details for different Raspberry Pi models-
1. Raspberry Pi 1 Model B (Apr-Jun 2012)
| Model | Raspberry Pi 1 Model B |
| Release date | April–June 2012 |
| Cost | $35 USD |
| RAM | Launched with 256 MB RAM later upgraded to 512MB in Oct 2012 (shared with GPU) |
| Processor | 700MHz Single Core ARM1176JZF-S |
| SoC | Broadcom (BCM2835) |
| Storage | SD Card |
| Ports | 2 USB, 10/100 Ethernet, 3.5mm Audio Jack, HDMI, RCA Jack for Composite Video |
| Power | 700mA (3.5 W) |
2. Raspberry Pi 1 Model A (Feb 2013)
| Model | Raspberry Pi 1 Model A |
| Release date | Feb 2013 |
| Cost | $25 USD |
| RAM | 256 MB RAM (shared with GPU) |
| Processor | 700MHz Single Core ARM1176JZF-S |
| SoC | Broadcom (BCM2835) |
| Storage | SD Card |
| Ports | 1 USB, No Ethernet, 3.5mm Audio Jack, HDMI, RCA Jack for Composite Video |
| Power | 300mA (1.5 W) |
3. Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+ (July 2014)
| Model | Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+ |
| Release date | July 2014 |
| Cost | $25 USD |
| RAM | 512 MB RAM (shared with GPU) |
| Processor | 700MHz Single Core ARM1176JZF-S |
| SoC | Broadcom (BCM2835) |
| Storage | Micro SD Card |
| Ports | 4 USB, 10/100 Ethernet, 3.5mm Audio Jack, HDMI, 3.5mm TRRS Jack for Composite Video |
| Power | 600mA (3.0 W) |
4. Raspberry Pi 1 Model A+ (Nov 2014)
| Model | Raspberry Pi 1 Model A+ |
| Release date | Nov 2014 |
| Cost | $20 USD |
| RAM | 256 MB RAM (shared with GPU) |
| Processor | 700MHz Single Core ARM1176JZF-S |
| SoC | Broadcom (BCM2835) |
| Storage | Micro SD Card |
| Ports | 1 USB, No Ethernet, 3.5mm Audio Jack, HDMI, 3.5mm TRRS Jack for Composite Video |
| Power | 200mA (1 W) |
5. Raspberry Pi 2 Model B (Feb 2015)
| Model | Raspberry Pi 2 Model B |
| Release date | Feb 2015 |
| Cost | $35 USD |
| RAM | 1 GB RAM (shared with GPU) |
| Processor | 900MHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A7 |
| SoC | Broadcom (BCM2836) |
| Storage | Micro SD Card |
| Ports | 4 USB, 10/100 Ethernet, 3.5mm Audio Jack, HDMI, 3.5mm TRRS Jack for Composite Video |
| Power | 800mA (4 W) |
6. Raspberry Pi Zero (Nov 2015)
| Model | Raspberry Pi Zero |
| Release date | Nov 2015 |
| Cost | $5 USD |
| RAM | 512MB RAM (shared with GPU) |
| Processor | 1GHz Single Core ARM1176JZF-S |
| SoC | Broadcom (BCM2835) |
| Storage | Micro SD Card |
| Ports | 1 Micro USB, mini HDMI |
| Power | 160mA (.8 W) |
7. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B (Feb 2016)
| Model | Raspberry Pi 3 Model B |
| Release date | Feb 2016 |
| Cost | $35 USD |
| RAM | 1 GB RAM (shared with GPU) |
| Processor | 1.2GHz Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53 |
| SoC | Broadcom (BCM2837) |
| Storage | Micro SD Card |
| Ports | 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth 4.1, 4 USB, 10/100 Ethernet, 3.5mm Audio Jack, HDMI, 3.5mm TRRS Jack for Composite Video |
| Power | 800mA (4 W) |
Free Books and Learning Resources:
- Raspberry Pi Projects Book
- Raspberry Pi: Measure, Record, Explore
- Python in Education
- Official Learning Resources
- Raspberry Pi Documentation
Operating System Options:
- Raspbian – Official Raspberry Pi OS (Debian Based)
- Ubuntu Mate
- Snappy Ubuntu Core
- Windows 10 IoT Core
- OSMC
- Openelec
- Pinet
- RISC OS
- Weather Station
- Arch Linux
- Void Linux
- Kodi
IoT Bytes 