Raspberry Pi Goes on Sale

The Raspberry Pi went on sale on February 29, 2012 (deliberately chosen as a leap-day launch) through two licensed distributors, RS Components and Farnell/Element14 — both UK-based electronics distributors that had agreed to handle manufacturing orders. Within minutes of the 6 AM UK launch, traffic overwhelmed both distributor websites, knocking them offline as tens of thousands of people tried to place orders simultaneously. Pre-registration lists ahead of the launch had exceeded 700,000 names, massively outstripping the initial production run of 10,000 boards. The Model B priced at $35 (£22) included a Broadcom BCM2835 SoC (700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S ARM11 core with 256 MB RAM co-packaged on the same SoC die — later upgraded to 512 MB in October 2012), VideoCore IV GPU (capable of 1080p30 H.264 hardware decode and OpenGL ES 2.0), HDMI output, composite video jack, 3.5mm audio, two USB 2.0 ports, 100 Mbps Ethernet, an SD card slot for the boot OS, and a 26-pin GPIO header. The cheaper Model A ($25) had one USB port and no Ethernet. The board was assembled at the Sony UK Technology Centre in Pencoed, Wales — a deliberate choice to keep manufacturing in the UK despite lower-cost options in China.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation had been incorporated in 2009 by Eben Upton, Rob Mullins, Jack Lang, and Alan Mycroft at the University of Cambridge, motivated by declining programming aptitude in students applying to Cambridge’s computer science programs compared to the home computing era (BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum). The BCM2835 was a Broadcom multimedia processor originally designed for set-top boxes and mobile phones, chosen because it provided a capable GPU with hardware video decode at a price that fit the target bill of materials. Broadcom agreed to produce the chip at educational pricing in part because of the nonprofit foundation’s mission. The initial Debian-based OS (“Debian squeeze” port for ARMv6 hard-float) was functional but rough; the Raspbian distribution (a Debian armhf rebuild optimized for the Pi’s ARMv6 FPU) launched in July 2012 and became the primary recommended OS. The GPIO header (3.3V logic, 17 usable GPIO pins in the original design, with I2C, SPI, and UART peripherals) was specifically included to allow interfacing with external hardware — LED strips, sensors, motors, custom circuits — a feature absent from typical mobile phones and tablets that used similar ARM SoCs.

The board’s price made it effectively a disposable experiment: breaking a $35 computer in an electronics project carried a different psychological cost than breaking a $500 laptop. Students used it to learn Python (the Foundation’s primary supported language) and shell scripting; hobbyists built media centers running XBMC (later Kodi), retro game emulators (RetroPie), and home automation servers; engineers embedded it in prototypes and small-run products. 100,000 units sold on the first day of availability once RS and Farnell restored their websites, and within a year the Pi had sold millions of units. The Raspberry Pi Model B+ (July 2014, 40-pin GPIO) and Raspberry Pi 2 (February 2015, quad-core Cortex-A7) continued the $35 form factor with progressively faster hardware. The Foundation became one of the most significant influences in reviving hands-on hardware education and the maker movement of the 2010s.