Raspberry Pi 2

[shavedape]

I remember posting about this when it first came out a couple years ago but never actually bought one. The Raspberry Pi is something akin to a "disposable computer", meaning that it's cheap and very basic. I believe the price is $35. Yes, thirty-five dollars. It's definitely a fun little "geek tool" as I understand it.

They have come out with Raspberry Pi 2 now which holds more memory, etc. Here's the info:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/

http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2015/02/02/windows-10-coming-to-raspberry-pi-2/




Since we launched the original Raspberry Pi Model B, back in 2012, we’ve done an enormous amount of software work to get the best out of our Broadcom BCM2835 application processor and its 700MHz ARM11 CPU. We’ve spent a lot of money on optimising a wide variety of open-source libraries and applications, including WebKit, LibreOffice, Scratch, Pixman, XBMC/Kodi, libav and PyPy.

Nonetheless, there comes a point when there’s no substitute for more memory and CPU performance. Our challenge was to figure out how to get this without throwing away our investment in the platform or spoiling all those projects and tutorials which rely on the precise details of the Raspberry Pi hardware. Fortunately for us, Broadcom were willing to step up with a new SoC, BCM2836. This retains all the features of BCM2835, but replaces the single 700MHz ARM11 with a 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 complex: everything else remains the same, so there is no painful transition or reduction in stability.

Raspberry Pi 2 is available to buy today from our partners element14 and RS Components. Remember you’ll need an updated NOOBS or Raspbian image including an ARMv7 kernel and modules from our downloads page. At launch, we are using the same ARMv6 Raspbian userland on both Raspberry Pi 1 and 2; over the next few months we will investigate whether we can obtain higher performance from regular ARMv7 Debian, or whether we can selectively replace a small number of libraries to get the best of both worlds. Now that we’re using an ARMv7 core, we can also run Ubuntu: a Snappy Ubuntu Core image is available now and a package for NOOBS will be available in the next couple of weeks.

*More info at the links

 

[Overmind One]

I remember posting about this when it first came out a couple years ago but never actually bought one. The Raspberry Pi is something akin to a "disposable computer", meaning that it's cheap and very basic. I believe the price is $35. Yes, thirty-five dollars. It's definitely a fun little "geek tool" as I understand it.

They have come out with Raspberry Pi 2 now which holds more memory, etc. Here's the info:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/

http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2015/02/02/windows-10-coming-to-raspberry-pi-2/




Since we launched the original Raspberry Pi Model B, back in 2012, we’ve done an enormous amount of software work to get the best out of our Broadcom BCM2835 application processor and its 700MHz ARM11 CPU. We’ve spent a lot of money on optimising a wide variety of open-source libraries and applications, including WebKit, LibreOffice, Scratch, Pixman, XBMC/Kodi, libav and PyPy.

Nonetheless, there comes a point when there’s no substitute for more memory and CPU performance. Our challenge was to figure out how to get this without throwing away our investment in the platform or spoiling all those projects and tutorials which rely on the precise details of the Raspberry Pi hardware. Fortunately for us, Broadcom were willing to step up with a new SoC, BCM2836. This retains all the features of BCM2835, but replaces the single 700MHz ARM11 with a 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 complex: everything else remains the same, so there is no painful transition or reduction in stability.

Raspberry Pi 2 is available to buy today from our partners element14 and RS Components. Remember you’ll need an updated NOOBS or Raspbian image including an ARMv7 kernel and modules from our downloads page. At launch, we are using the same ARMv6 Raspbian userland on both Raspberry Pi 1 and 2; over the next few months we will investigate whether we can obtain higher performance from regular ARMv7 Debian, or whether we can selectively replace a small number of libraries to get the best of both worlds. Now that we’re using an ARMv7 core, we can also run Ubuntu: a Snappy Ubuntu Core image is available now and a package for NOOBS will be available in the next couple of weeks.

*More info at the links

I wonder if this will run a thin version of Mint?

 

[shavedape]

I wonder if this will run a thin version of Mint?

I believe it runs Ubuntu just fine and it's able to handle Windows 10 so I can't imagine it wouldn't be able to handle Mint. Keep in mind I'm not the most knowledgeable person regarding computer stuff though.

 

[Overmind One]

I believe it runs Ubuntu just fine and it's able to handle Windows 10 so I can't imagine it wouldn't be able to handle Mint. Keep in mind I'm not the most knowledgeable person regarding computer stuff though.

For only $35, I will just have to try it out huh?

 

[shavedape]

For only $35, I will just have to try it out huh?

It seems like a fun little gadget for someone who is fairly computer savvy. As it is it's really small and could probably be linked up pretty easy to existing equipment.

 

[Joelist]

You need the board, a case and a power source. Plus of course keyboard, mouse and monitor.

 

[shavedape]

 

[Gate_Boarder]

If you are big at "hacking" old electronic devices, then you should be kept busy for a couple of hours with this one. I am counting 40 pins so are they hinting that you need a power supply that can be dropped by a 6 volt transformer? Plus a mouse, keyboard, case, and monitor.

 

[Overmind One]

OMG that neat little setup is so Maqui-chic! So....post Apple. Love it just as it is, naked with circuits showing. AWESOME!

 

[Bluce Ree]

OMG that neat little setup is so Maqui-chic! So....post Apple. Love it just as it is, naked with circuits showing. AWESOME!

http://www.zdnet.com/article/build-your-own-supercomputer-out-of-raspberry-pi-boards/

 

[Bluce Ree]

Steps to make a Raspberry Pi supercomputer.

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~sjc/raspberrypi/

 

[Gatefan1976]

Hmm.....................
Could you use something like this as a cheap plug in to use an external HDD rather than hooking your tv up to a full bodied computer?

 

[Overmind One]

Hmm.....................
Could you use something like this as a cheap plug in to use an external HDD rather than hooking your tv up to a full bodied computer?

PRECISELY my intention for this thing. I plan to attach one to each TV and centralize the filestores and network control. With this thing running Ubuntu, you can control them all from a single computer and stream to each one individually. You can use the native system of Ubuntu Media Center to provide all the smart TV features you need, including browsing your shared movie library, music and internet based media.

 

[Gatefan1976]

but that would still require a pc would it not?

 

[Bluce Ree]

PRECISELY my intention for this thing. I plan to attach one to each TV and centralize the filestores and network control. With this thing running Ubuntu, you can control them all from a single computer and stream to each one individually. You can use the native system of Ubuntu Media Center to provide all the smart TV features you need, including browsing your shared movie library, music and internet based media.

Check out OpenELEC, which runs very smoothly on Raspberry PI:

http://openelec.tv/

 

[Overmind One]

but that would still require a pc would it not?

Require? No. But to run it alone as a primary device (to me) would be a definite few steps down from what I already have set up. Right now, I have a full sized computer connected to both of by big screen TVs and I watch Netflix, my movies and listen to music stored on the array of drives on my living room computer (internal SATA), as well as some stored on the other computer in my bedroom. They are networked, and use mounted shares from each other. I use XBMC for central control of my media, and since it consolidates all the music and movies into a single searchable/playable library (a la Netflix), it allows the use of an Android app installed on a smartphone to control it wirelessly. Quite slick, really. .

The Raspberry Pi would allow me to eliminate the computers at the TVs and use the computer as a workstation in my bedroom. I could leave it running only as a file server/web server and run the Rasperry Pi units as thin clients. A 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 is not going to run my Windows games, but it can be a thin client to the main computers that can. Many other possible scenarios. You could conceivably have a separate computer controlling a variety of systems from home lighting to multiple timers for whatever you might need.

Im not seeing how these things network. Do they natively? Even if there is no solution on the board, USB wireless transmitter/receivers easily solves that.

 

[Overmind One]

Check out OpenELEC, which runs very smoothly on Raspberry PI:

http://openelec.tv/

XBMC...renamed? I have that EXACT program, still named XBMC. Here is a screenshot just taken of it:

 

[Gatefan1976]

Require? No. But to run it alone as a primary device (to me) would be a definite few steps down from what I already have set up. Right now, I have a full sized computer connected to both of by big screen TVs and I watch Netflix, my movies and listen to music stored on the array of drives on my living room computer (internal SATA), as well as some stored on the other computer in my bedroom. They are networked, and use mounted shares from each other. I use XBMC for central control of my media, and since it consolidates all the music and movies into a single searchable/playable library (a la Netflix), it allows the use of an Android app installed on a smartphone to control it wirelessly. Quite slick, really. .

All I wanna know is, can I plug this into my TV, plug my 3TB HDD into it and access it using the TV as a screen.

 

[Bluce Ree]

XBMC...renamed? I have that EXACT program, still named XBMC. Here is a screenshot just taken of it:

View attachment 30809

No. OpenELEC is a full, very lightweight Linux distro running an instant-on XBMC and samba running out of the box aimed at media centers. You should actually read the articles instead of just looking at the pictures.

 

[Overmind One]

All I wanna know is, can I plug this into my TV, plug my 3TB HDD into it and access it using the TV as a screen.

yes.