Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Open Source Build

Raspberry Pi Announces New $90 Computer in a Keyboard, Plus 'Raspberry Pi Monitor' (techcrunch.com) 90

Posted by EditorDavid from the Pi-eyed dept.
"Single-board computer maker Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer-meet-keyboard device with better specifications..." reports TechCrunch.

They call the new $90 Raspberry Pi 500 "not as intimidating" because "when you look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you can't see any chipsets or printed circuit board... The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is that you can plug in a mouse and display, and you're ready to hit the ground running." When it comes to specifications, the Raspberry Pi 500 features a 64-bit quad-core Arm processor (the same one as the Raspberry Pi 5 uses); 8GB of RAM; 2 micro-HDMI ports, with support for up to two 4K displays; 3 traditional USB ports (but no USB-C besides the power port unfortunately); a Gigabit Ethernet port; and a 40-pin expansion header. It comes with native Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.

More importantly, this device brings us back Raspberry Pi's roots. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational use cases... The Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the not-for-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation's roots. It's the perfect first computer for school. In many ways, it's much better than a Chromebook or an iPad because it is both cheap and highly customizable — encouraging creative thinking. The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card preloaded with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution...

In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced another brand-new product: the Raspberry Pi Monitor. It's a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor with a price-tag of $100.
Tom's Hardware calls the Pi 500 "a superb update" to the original computer-in-a-keyboard Raspberry Pi 400: Having the ports at the back makes total sense. It tidies up the cables, and means that we only need one thick edge, the rest can be as thin as possible... [P]assive cooling performance is remarkable, even when overclocked to 3 GHz...! I did have to adjust the voltage to keep everything stable, but once I found the magic numbers, the system was stable and performed remarkably well... [I]t ran buttery smooth and surprisingly, cool under stress. I'd consider this a successful overclock and one that I would happily keep as a permanent addition...

Just like the Raspberry Pi 400, the Pi 500 is there to be a 21st century equivalent to the home computers of the 1980s. You plug in to a wedge-shaped keyboard, hook up to your display, and start work. But the Raspberry Pi 500 has much more processing power than the Pi 400, and that means it can be a viable desktop computer for those that don't need an RTX 4090 or a power-hungry CPU.

I like the Raspberry Pi 500. It's a powerful machine, in a pleasant package. I'm old enough to remember the 1980s home computer craze, and this, just like the Pi 400, reminds me of that time. But now we have much more power... The Raspberry Pi 500 is the kit that you buy as a gift for someone, or as a child's first computer. I can see this being used in schools and to an extent in offices around the world.

Raspberry Pi Announces New $90 Computer in a Keyboard, Plus 'Raspberry Pi Monitor' More | Reply

Raspberry Pi Announces New $90 Computer in a Keyboard, Plus 'Raspberry Pi Monitor'

Comments Filter:

  • Unpopulated part (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Saturday December 14, 2024 @04:50PM (#65013747) Homepage
    I'm wondering what the unpopulated part of the PCB is at the left end? Would love to see this with POE support. I already have many RPis with POE hats and PXE boot, making them so easy to deploy anywhere.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )
      To answer my own post I see PoE on the PCB in that area so I guess that will be a future version.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by tokul ( 682258 )

      Easy to deploy as long as you got compatible network kit. I got only one PoE port.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ukoda ( 537183 )
        PoE switches are pretty cheap now days. If getting one for noise sensitive area get a fan-less one. If noise not a problem a retired one from commercial use can be a real bargain. That was the easy part. The hard part was getting my servers correctly set up for RPi PXE booting. Also ended up creating tool to manage file system images on the server so a could add RPi and change their OSes easier. A bit like Docker but with real hardware.

  • Brilliant (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hadleyburg ( 823868 ) on Saturday December 14, 2024 @05:29PM (#65013793)

    This product really appeals to me.

    You could put together a minimalist set up (Pi 500 + monitor using wireless mouse) and have a clean desk at a very reasonable price.
    For people who use their computer for email and browsing it looks like a great option.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by crow ( 16139 )

      Yes, I could see that. Though you could take a small computer, attach it to the back of your monitor, and then use a wireless keyboard and mouse, and you have an even cleaner desktop. Plus, you can get a keyboard that you like (which is going to be very different for different people).

      With the popularity of small computers, there really should be a mounting standard for monitors that doesn't conflict with the monitor stand. Ideally there should also be an option for the computer to be powered through the

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hjf ( 703092 )

      what? No, there is no clean desk with this setup
      you need to power it, the monitor, and the HDMI cable for the monitor. that's 3 cables coming out of this keyboard thing

      I know this, I had the model 400 a few years ago and it ...just sucked. Not hardware wise, but the fact that you need at minimum 2 wires.

      For a clean desk, just go with wireless keyboard and mouse and a normal computer.

    • April 1983 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Or you could emulate TRS-80 on a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]. In fact obsolete pocket calculators HAVE become computers in a way, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] and its later successors. If the Pi people were financially aggressive, they would find a way to build a teeny slot in the KB and slide out display on a plastic carrier from 1 inch oled to say 6 inches in the keyboard. These would get broken a lot, so money from spares keeps the distributors

  • You can buy a brand new Chromebook laptop for under $50. Reference: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ace... [walmart.com]

    It will probably perform better too.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. Or get that and a real microcontroller board in addition, like an Orange Pi.

    • Re:Laptops are cheaper (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 ) on Saturday December 14, 2024 @07:53PM (#65014041)

      I don't think so, with an 8 year old Celeron?

      I would expect the benchmarks to favour the Cortex-A76, twice as many cores and double the RAM.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by drnb ( 2434720 )
        I expect that refurb Chromebook also no longer gets software updates.

        Last I checked a decent email/browsing Chromebook was going to cost $235'ish.

    • You can buy a brand new Chromebook laptop for under $50. Reference: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ace... [walmart.com]

      It will probably perform better too.

      Your link refers to refurbished laptop:

      About this item
      Product details

      This item is in good condition, showing signs of use from normal wear. It is backed by a 1 year warranty. It is fully functional and has been professionally refurbished, inspected and cleaned to good condition.

      • OK, true. I missed that. My overall point that laptops are cheaper still stands though on weaker footing. The Raspberry pi desktop kit (with mouse/power supply) costs $120 and on top of that you need the monitor $100 .. total $220. There are a number of laptops cheaper than that.

    • If you look at the Chromebooks fine print, you own the hardware, but NOT the Chrome OS. If it is 'Enrolled' they claim you do not, and seek to deny statutory rights in many countries. 2nd hand dealers do not want to touch them, no profit. Now if we dig into the license deeper, we see the usual privacy mining talk. It is nearly as bad as mobile phones that do not allow you to delete certain apps. At least the Pi is untethered without shackles.

    • For $50 you can get a half-ounce of flower.

      Get that instead, because you can have a lot of fun with the computer you probably already have.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
        I'll take it you are joking with that flower prize, in case you are not holy crap what does bread cost at your location. With that flower price (I suppose you mean flour and not the plan of which roses are a popular sort as these are usually not sold by weight). Incidentally you kan get a packet of approx. 35.3oz (exactly 1 KG) of flour here Norway for about USD 1.53 , So your post does not add up. bat anyway Happy holydays (or whatever sesonal greting you preferer)

        • By flower they are probably referring to cannabis.

          For $50 a half-ounce they probably mean Mexican sativa obtained on the street, for any sort of primo indica from a dispensary $50 will only get you a gram or two.

    • >"You can buy a brand new Chromebook laptop for under $50. Reference: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ace [walmart.com]... [walmart.com]"

      Yes, but that is a USED machine, "this item[] showing signs of use from normal wear [] has been professionally refurbished" and with half the RAM, and the processor is probably not as fast. And you are stuck with an 11.6" monitor 1366x768.

      At least it has storage- something the 500 doesn't, and isn't mentioned. And if stuck with just SD, that will hurt it a lot.

      Actual price of the Acer i

    • But it is not a PI.

      Why this stupid comments? You can by a brand new BYD for 10% of the price of a Tesla ... but people want a Tesla, and the government wants you to buy a Tesla and hence taxes/tariffs BYDs ...

      I took the liberty to click your link: it only has half the RAM, and is not an ARM ...

      So? Just because something has 4 wheels it is all the same? No, it is not.

    • It's a refurbished Chromebook with a 7 year old Celeron CPU and 4 GB RAM... also, it's EOL so chromeOS (or whatever they call it) won't be updated, and its usefulness in the Chrome ecosystem is questionable. Sure, dump Linux on it, and wallow in the joy of 4 Gigs RAM and 32 glorious gigabytes of eMMC storage.

      Yes, cheap, old/unsupported, slow chromebooks are always an option...

  • The original mission of the RP is dead and never panned out. If you want a single board computer, get an Orange Pi or something like it that was designed by actual experts and not by the hacks at the RP foundation that are laughably inept.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by drnb ( 2434720 )

      The original mission of the RP is dead and never panned out.

      Wrong, you can get a $35 Raspberry Pi 4. That $35 Linux SBC is alive and well, letting students learn software and hardware.

    • Thanks! I'm gonna buy 64000 Orange Pi's and build myself a Beowulf cluster!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
        might i sugste a bunch of compute modules and a suitable backplane instead, you will use les overall power (probably) and have way fewer cables to deal with. or if yo need that kind of compute a cheap secon hand server might be better. Why do people seam to be so untent on building pi clusters, that's not what the hw is designed for

  • Sadly no M.2 connector. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by superscalar ( 229943 ) on Saturday December 14, 2024 @07:21PM (#65013987)

    The latest RPi 5 is really great running off an M.2 or external USB-C SSD attached... every bit as good as a mainstream laptop/desktop for basic tasks. Running off a microSD is much less pleasant. You could still use an external USB drive with the Pi 500, but it would have cost so little to include an M.2 slot on this and would have made it so much nicer. Really poor decision-making from RPi.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tzanger ( 1575 )

      it has an unpopulated M2 connector and power supply; someone has already got it working. I assume they'll populate it in a minor spin.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dskoll ( 99328 )

        It's not that easy to get working because it's missing more than just the connector. Jeff Geerling has a video [youtube.com] about this. So I don't think this is something the average person could do, and Geerling seems to indicate that there are no plans to populate the M2 connector and power supply.

        • Re:Sadly no M.2 connector. (Score:4, Interesting)

          by tzanger ( 1575 ) on Saturday December 14, 2024 @08:49PM (#65014121) Homepage

          That's exactly what I'm referring to, yes. Mind you I'm an EE so for someone like myself it is trivial to populate the connector, four 0402 or 0201 caps and rig up something to supply power. I find myself occasionally thinking "oh that's easy" without considering why it's easy for someone like myself.

          • It is probably not that straightforward, according to the Ars Technica review (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/12/raspberry-pi-500-updates-sub-100-desktop-pc-with-more-speed-optional-monitor/): "simply soldering one down isn't enough to enable M.2 support"

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Misagon ( 1135 )

          A user on Jeff Geerling's forum has got an SSD up and running, with an external power source and missing suspend functionality as yet.

          It did require a microscope and soldering skills to fit some tiny capacitors, so it was indeed something the average tinkerer could not do.

          I do expect there to be a more expensive Pi 500 with components populated in the future.
          (will they call it the Pi 500+ in keeping with the Amiga references? ;) )

          • I suspect the reason the slot was not implemented were for heat and packaging issues.

            Adding the connector would necessitate adding an access door to install NVMe SSD, and as the SSD would float above the PCB there'd likely need to be space for airflow/heat dissipation. All this would likely necessitate a new case design, which they were likely trying to avoid.

            A $90 RPi 500 isn't intended to replace $100 micro PCs (NUC Clones), it is for a handful of use cases. If you want a 'clean desktop' why wouldn't you

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )
      Yes, I was surprised at that as the M.2 interface is a really nice improvement on the RPi 5. It wouldn't put me of as I PXE boot all my RPIs that don't need to running before the NAS is up.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by drnb ( 2434720 )

      Really poor decision-making from RPi.

      Not really, they are trying to make a cheap system for students. They also sell a wired mouse for $8 and a power supply for $12. So $110 and bring your own monitor for an ARM base Linux single board computer, and embedded Linux platform.

      Personally I'd suggest a regular Pi 5, case, and wired keyboard rather than this integrated version to get easier access to GPIO. Then again, maybe their integrated case has a slot to run out a GPIO connector cable?

    • Really poor decision-making from RPi.

      Why, because it doesn't suit your particular use case?

      Raspberry Pi Foundation wasn't created to make blazing fast, low-cost desktop replacement computers for hackers, it was to expose todays kids to programming and 'physical' hardware applications (hooking servos, LEDs, switches, etc to support projects).

      As a convenient way to put an RPi in the hands of a child, the 500, like the 400, fits that application quite nicely - no need to source a keyboard or case, and the cost is lower than the price of a 4 GB RP

  • I liked the red accent of the Pi 400 (Score:3)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Saturday December 14, 2024 @08:31PM (#65014095)
    The 500 is just bland white.

  • Look how far we have come. (Score:3)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Sunday December 15, 2024 @06:41AM (#65014563)

    This product and it's name - of course - quote the Amiga 500 and its predecessor, the C64. But look how far we've come. A personal computer that costs little more than a days worth of minimum wage, offers all the processing power a regular person would need and then some, runs on low power low voltage electricity and sports a massive stack of free open source software with everything anyone would ever want to tinker with including an ecessory port for automation and telemetry projects. And it's all a somewhat niche product that doesn't have all that many economics of scale while still costing just 100$.

    Awesome.

    • It's called a 500 as it is the logical name for an RPi 5-based system based on the RPi 4-based 400... it's not a callback to a 40 year-old Amiga...

    • The federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour, 8 hours is $58 a day so in reality it is two days worth of minimum wage.

      But seeing as how most people making minimum wage are barely able to put a roof over their heads and still have enough left over to eat I think getting a computer is the least of their problems.

  • Just wondering...

    The specs aren't great, though. Mini-HDMI and no USB-C? But they include an ethernet port few will use. Does it have external access to the SD card?

    • Yes, it has a microSD slot that is accessible by the user. You really couldn't be bothered to look that up?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by q_e_t ( 5104099 )
        You are correct, I could not. The lack of HDMI was such a turn off I saw no point wasting time checking.

    • More annoyingly, the mini-HDMI for me.

      Everyone has HDMI cables lying around or at least, repurposable. I know no one with a mini-hdmi to hdmi lying around (except me, from my pi4). This device has the board spread across the back of the computer, space isn't at a premium like the regular pi... they had plenty of space for a full-sized port that would let anyone just plug into their existing tv or monitor setup.

      Second would be a functional M.2 slot because running from SD cards is pants.

  • This reminds me of getting a C64 as a teenager, truly the start of a slippery slope. Tempted to get one for my kids.
  • I know the army of Pi lovers who falsely elevate the Pi to open-source-hardware status will think this post is flame-bait, but seeing that the Pi people removed the audio jack on the Pi, (and they state that adding it back on the Pi is so easy), did they put an audio jack on the new keyboard Pi?

  • About 2 years I bought a new laptop at MicroCenter for $60. With taxes and all about $67.

    Even if you paid $300 for a laptop, at least you are getting a complete system including monitor, speakers, camera and so on.

    I can remember when a PC set up cost about half as much as a new car. Now, you get about a million times the power for the price of a few bags of groceries.

    Is there really any reason chase computing deals?

Slashdot Top Deals

In order to dial out, it is necessary to broaden one's dimension.

Close