Home | News £22 PC Raspberry Pi Launches, Crashes Retailer Site

Demand is high for the new programmable micro-PC endorsed by game development legend David Braben.

Revolutionary new programmable micro-PC Raspberry Pi is now available to buy with stock incoming from China - although retailer sites are struggling to cope with demand - the Raspberry Pi website has revealed.

"Although we are still waiting for units to arrive from China, you can start buying the Raspberry Pi today," reads the site.

"We have entered into licensed manufacture partnerships with two British companies, Premier Farnell and RS Components. They'll be manufacturing and distributing the devices on behalf of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and handling the distribution of our first batches as they arrive in the country. The Foundation continues to make a small profit from each Raspberry Pi sold, which we'll be putting straight back into the charity."

The Raspberry Pi was developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation which aims to "promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing."

The budget PC has the involvement of Elite creator and game development veteran David Braben as well as the endorsement of computer science campaigner and Eidos life-president Ian Livingstone.

The Raspberry Pi measures just 85mm by 54mm and is available in both Model A (£16) and Model B (£22) versions - the single-board device features HDMI, USB, Audio and SD card ports, with Model A featuring 128MB of RAM and the Model B upping that to 256MB and an ethernet port.

The Raspberry Pi can reportedly run Linux - as well as Quake 3 at 1080p and HD video.

"We are launching with Model Bs as there has been a much larger demand for them from the community," adds the site. "This first launch is aimed at software and hardware enthusiasts, makers, teachers and others who want to build exciting things with the Raspberry Pi before the official educational launch, which will happen later in 2012."

"This means that when we launch into the educational market, there will be an experienced community of people using and making things with the Raspberry Pi. Software will be more mature and free of obvious bugs, and easier for children and educators to use."