Raspberry Pi
In 2006, Eben Upton and his colleagues at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory faced an unexpected problem: applicants to their program were becoming less and less proficient in computing. Worse still, their numbers were declining year after year. The diagnosis was clear. The computers of the 1980s, with their visible internals and direct programming, had disappeared in favor of sealed machines, carefully hidden behind plastic casings and polished interfaces. Computers no longer invited tinkering; they were simply used.
Upton dreamed of an affordable machine that would restore to young people the joy of experimentation he had known at their age. His initial prototype, named ABC Micro as a tribute to the BBC Micro, was limited to a board built around an Atmel microcontroller and a few memory chips. Early tests with children, however, revealed that this minimalist approach failed to spark the expected enthusiasm.
Also in 2006, Upton joined Broadcom. This opportunity gave him access to far more powerful components, notably the BCM2835 which integrated an ARM11 processor. This chip concentrated everything needed to run a real computer in a few square centimeters: HDMI output, 3D acceleration, video decoding, USB controller. The addition of a general-purpose ARM processor changed everything, particularly by running Linux on it.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation was established in 2009. Two years later, the final board took shape. Upton and his team envisioned limited production, a few hundred units per year at most. But the enthusiasm exceeded their wildest expectations. The foundation reoriented its strategy: it retained design, branding, and prototypes, but delegated manufacturing to RS Components and Premier Farnell.
In early 2012, the first 10,000 Raspberry Pis sold out within hours. The name circulated in technical circles and maker communities. The foundation seized this momentum to revive British electronics industry: after starting in China, production gradually migrated to Wales until achieving complete localization.
Users immediately diverted the board from its original educational purpose. The 32 input-output pins, which Upton had added almost as an afterthought, became the most prized feature. Raspberry Pi-powered drones appeared, along with stratospheric balloons and home automation installations. One hobbyist transformed his microwave by adding a touchscreen, voice commands, a web interface, and a barcode reader connected to a recipe database.
These sophisticated projects, requiring advanced skills, paradoxically reinforced the educational dimension of the project. They showed young people what could be accomplished with programming knowledge. Workshops in schools confirmed this intuition: sometimes merely changing the color of a snake in a game was enough to make a student refuse to stop. This first sensation of control over the machine produced an effect comparable to what Upton had experienced in his youth.
The Raspberry Pi combines technical and economic characteristics that explain its success. Its 700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S processor, coupled with a VideoCore IV GPU, delivers remarkable multimedia performance for a device of this size. The SDRAM memory, increased from 256 MB on Model A to 512 MB on Model B, is sufficient to run Linux comfortably. The absence of a hard drive, replaced by a simple SD card, keeps the price low and simplifies operating system changes.
Hardware updates followed in succession without disruption. The Raspberry Pi 4 features a Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core 64-bit ARM Cortex-A72 at 1.5 GHz, up to 8 GB of LPDDR4 memory, Bluetooth 5.0, dual-band Wi-Fi, and USB 3.0 ports. These developments preserve backward compatibility while expanding the realm of possibilities.
The Raspberry Pi has proven that a market exists for accessible single-board computers. With 19 million units sold, it ranks third among general-purpose computers. It has revived interest in hands-on computer learning and inspired an entire generation of engineers and creators. Its story demonstrates how a local educational initiative, by hitting the mark, can trigger an international movement that redefines our relationship with technology.