The Raspberry Pi (part two)
[Disclaimer: All opinions in this post are mine and mine alone. Although I am a moderator on the http://raspberrypi.org I don't speak for the foundation and any factual errors, upset I may cause or spelling mistakes are completely my responsibility]
Chapter the Second in which we meet the Alpha board, the Beta board and the people who whine a lot.
[As an aside, The above line is in the style of one of my favourite children's book that is fun to read as an adult as you'll appreciate it more. They rereleased it about a year or so ago as well so it isn't as hard to find as it used to be. In the 80s I was given a copy by my at the time girlfriend C.H.M. and have reread it so many times i've had to replace it 3 times (once was because I gave my copy to a kid). If you spot it in a book store (support you local independant book store) buy a copy of Noel Langley's The Land of Green Ginger. ISBN: 978-1567923339 ]
Ok back to the Raspberry Pi.
The foundation has one goal that trumps anything else they are trying to do. The cost to the purchaser excluding local taxes, duties & postage MUST BE!!! less than or equal to $25 for the Model A & less than or equal to $35 for the Model B. (The prices are quoted in US Dollars because the component industry prices parts in Dollars so setting their target selling price in any currency other than US dollars would cause major headaches and cause them to go over their target selling price on occasion). Everything else can go by the wayside. The form factor, the interfaces exposed, the connectors attached, the SoC used, the manufacturing location are all to a certain extent flexible but the retail price is SET IN STONE!!! They would almost rather close the foundation than not meet their selling price. [My words not theirs, but this is the feeling I get from things that various foundation members have said in the past.]
The original (pre-alpha) form factor when the Raspberry Pi was first announced was a USB stick with a USB connector at one end, an HDMI connector at the other and a camera module on top (and a free 20pence piece to the side).
However, because smaller is more expensive when producing professionally manufactured circuit boards this form factor proved too expensive to produce if the price targets were to be met and anyway there was no room left on the board to be able to add things such as Composite Video Out (not everyone has an HDMI enabled television or monitor) & GPIO connectors. [Personally I think it was the free 20p that pushed it over the edge. If they had stuck with the original plan and had only included 10pence piece instead all would have been good]
At the same time that the Raspberry Pi website and forum went live they also announced that the redesigned Raspberry Pi's specs, schematics and PCB layout had been finalized and the manufacture of a limited run of 50 boards had started. These boards, known as Alpha boards although slightly larger than it was envisioned that the production board's would be (approx 20% bigger) were to be used to check the schematics and layout and to be used to start the software development process.
While the boards were off being built, Liz, remember that name from earlier? she of the multiple chapeau, single tête announced a logo design competition to find a logo suitable for the whole Raspberry Pi project. The foundation, the hardware and all documents and allied materials. [more about the logo competition later]
On August 12th 2011 the foundation announced that earlier that day they had received the box of Alpha boards from the manufacturer and faster than a kid on Christmas day they had ripped open the box, taken a few out, posed the boards for their close up Mr de Mille (see above), booted linux, accessed the sd card, brought up the networking and pinged a few sites. A few were kept back for the foundation to test and work on, however, the vast majority were sent to various groups to start the porting process of Linux distro's and educational software etc.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and it was announced that Quake3 & a video player were now running and a video was posted on the website.
It was also announced that Eben would wander the Earth (USA & UK) as lone Pi-man (not that lone as he always travels with his minder) giving talks and presentations on the Raspberry Pi and the Foundation and it's aims. One of these presentations was a stop off in NYC on his way to the West Coast to show off a couple of Raspberry Pi Alpha boards and give a 5 minute or so presentation at MakerFaire NY 2011.
[I hope that if there is a MakerFaire NY 2012 -- nothing announced yet -- Eben & Liz are able to attend although I suspect they'll be staying home as much as possible once the Raspberry Pi is launched and in our paws. Actually any of the foundation trustees would be interesting people to meet so i'm sure they'd be welcome]
[Full disclosure: When first announced I wasn't that enamoured with the winning logo design especially the BS about bucky balls and faces etc. 
but over the months i've gotten used to it and well it's a logo and it does it's job and if you turn it upsidedown and squint it looks a bit like the Acorn logo ]
It was around this time that the grumbling and whining started. There had always been a tiny bit of muttering about "why can't I have an Alpha board I need one to make my sooper sekret project coz i l337 h4x0r". Most of the complaints at this time though came from professional graphic artists and brand designers saying that the Foundation was stealing the bread from their mouths or that the rules for the competition were weighted against professionals. When Liz announced the competition she said that the winning design would receive a free Raspberry Pi model B, an invite to the launch party whenever that is, fame, immortality and lots of bragging rights. Something that would be perfect for an under 18 year old or someone just giving it a go, someone who is in the Foundations target audience. The professional graphic designers complained that the foundation was forcing them to work for free and/or on spec and that the foundation didn't know how these things worked. (I think they do know how these things work very well as Eben has founded at least two businesses, Liz freelances, Jack Lang is a business mentor and well we all know what David Braben did and still does and those are just the Trustees that I know about off the top of my head). If you actually want to read some of the grumbling and complaints etc. check out the logo competition comments and threads on the Raspberry Pi website and forum.
phew this is a lot of typing (and several revisions too) so I think i'll lie about you meeting the Beta boards in this post and stop here. You'll meet the Beta boards in a later post.
[Disclaimer: All opinions in this post are mine and mine alone. Although I am a moderator on thehttp://raspberrypi.org I don't speak for the foundation and any factual errors, upset I may cause or spelling mistakes are completely my responsibility]
