New Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

by
in hardware on (#W9ZP)
story imageThe original Raspberry Pi Model B and its successors put a programmable computer within reach of anyone with $20-35 to spend. Today, I'm pleased to announce the immediate availability of Raspberry Pi Zero, made in Wales and priced at just $5. Zero is a full-fledged member of the Raspberry Pi family, featuring:

A Broadcom BCM2835 application processor 1GHz ARM11 core (40% faster than Raspberry Pi 1)
512MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM
A micro-SD card slot
A mini-HDMI socket for 1080p60 video output
Micro-USB sockets for data and power
An unpopulated 40-pin GPIO header Identical pinout to Model A+/B+/2B
An unpopulated composite video header
Our smallest ever form factor, at 65mm x 30mm x 5mm

Raspberry Pi Zero runs Raspbian and all your favourite applications, including Scratch, Minecraft and Sonic Pi. It is available today in the UK from The Pi Hut and Pimoroni, and in the US from Adafruit and in-store at your local branch of Micro Center. We've built several tens of thousands of units so far, and are building more, but we expect demand to outstrip supply for the next little while.

You'll need a mini-HDMI and a micro-USB adapter/cable

Happy hacking!

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero/

Can't compete with Chinese tablet (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-04 15:06 (#WN37)

While I'm sure that these things have their use cases, I don't think they make much sense for most of my projects. When you add the power supply, the display, touchscreen, storage, wi-fi and a custom case your cost comes out already greater than a $50 Chinese tablet, which also has battery backup to boot.

These tablets also come with all the necessary drivers. You just wipe out the Android and install a minimal Linux userland. GPIO is quite easy to do with $5 worth of parts. Install some tinyusb on an atmega and you're done. This type of GPIO is much better in fact. You can do bit banging or real time control all you like without being worried about the general purpose OS scheduling you out. Plus, with the USB or serial interface you can test the electronicky parts using a regular desktop and then build the control tablet when you get it right.

I used to tinker with bananas and raspberries, now I don't really bother. This new part may come handy though, due to its size. If you don't need many peripherals and need to fit in a small space, it could be useful.

What would you guys use it for?
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