Raspberry Pi Goes on Sale
Published:
The Raspberry Pi went on sale on February 29, 2012, and demand immediately overwhelmed the distributors’ websites. The $35 Model B was a complete ARM-based Linux computer on a board roughly the size of a credit card.
Its 700 MHz ARM11 processor was modest even by 2012 standards, but the VideoCore IV GPU could handle hardware-accelerated video, and the GPIO connector made the board useful for electronics projects. Users supplied their own SD card, keyboard, display, and power adapter.
The Pi succeeded because it was inexpensive enough to treat as an experimental object. Students could learn Python or Linux, hobbyists could build robots and media centers, and engineers could use it as a small controller. The board helped revive interest in low-cost general-purpose computing outside the traditional PC market.