May. 5, 2011 (11:35 am) By:
Matthew
Humphries
David Braben is a very well-known game developer
who runs the
Over his career his studio has brought us the Rollercoaster Tycoon series, Thrillville, Lost
Winds, and most recently Kinectimals.
In the background, however, Braben has been trying to
tackle another problem: getting programming and general learning of how computers work back into schools.
Braben argues that
education since we entered the 2000s has turned towards ICT which teaches
useful skills such as writing documents in a word processor, how to create
presentations, and basic computer use skills. But that has
replaced more computer science-like skills such as basic programming and
understanding the architecture and hardware contained in a computer.
His solution is not to create his own course,
but instead to manufacture a very low cost PC that can be given to kids for
free and courses built up around their use. When we say low cost, we mean so
low even the OLPC would be impressed.
Braben has developed
a tiny USB stick PC that has a HDMI port in one end and a USB port on the
other. You plug it into a HDMI socket and then connect a keyboard via the USB
port giving you a fully functioning machine running a version of Linux. The cost? $25.
The hardware being offered is no slouch either.
It uses a 700MHz ARM11 processor coupled with 128MB of RAM and runs OpenGL ES
2.0 allowing for decent graphics performance with 1080p output confirmed.
Storage is catered for by an SD card slot. It also looks as though modules can
be attached such as the 12MP camera seen in the image above.
We can expect it to run a range of Linux distributions,
but it looks like Ubuntu may be the distro it ships with. That means it will handle web
browsing, run office applications, and give the user a fully functional
computer to play with as soon as it’s plugged in. All that and it can be
carried in your pocket or on a key chain.
This tiny, cheap PC is going to be distributed
through a new charitable foundation called the Raspberry Pi
Foundation. It will also promote computer science studies in schools.
As for when the Raspberry Pi device will become
available, Braben says he hopes to be distributing it
within the next 12 months.
D