Raspberry Pi: A real success story

Hardly any of the developers of the Raspberry Pi could have imagined the gigantic popularity that their mini-computer would one day enjoy. The original motivation of the creators was to counteract the declining number of computer science students at Cambridge University. The previous knowledge among the decreasing number of first-year students was also decreasing noticeably. The idea was to create a computer that was easy to use and as inexpensive as possible, with which students could learn to program in a fun way. According to the developers, young people interested in programming are reluctant to experiment with more expensive and complex home computers for fear of possible damage. Thus, a prototype with an Atmel Atmega644 microcontroller was already produced in 2006. However, the real success story of the Raspberry Pi only began at the beginning of 2012, when the first official Raspberry Pi model came onto the market. By the end of 2019, around 30 million copies of the popular mini-computer had been sold.

Behind the success is, on the one hand, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a British foundation that is also registered as a charity. The aim of the foundation, whose trustees to this day at least partly come from the Cambridge University environment, is to promote computer science studies - at universities as well as at schools. Production and distribution of the hardware, on the other hand, is carried out by Raspberry Pi Trading, a company wholly owned by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

The fact that "Raspberry" was chosen as the company's name is related to the trend in the IT industry at the time to name themselves after fruits - see Apple or Acorn. The suffix "Pi", on the other hand, stands for "Python interpreter" - an indication that the mini-computer was originally intended to be equipped with a fixed built-in interpreter for the Python programming language.

It's no coincidence that the Raspberry Pi is so popular, because the compact single-board computer has many talents: On the one hand, it's suitable as an energy-saving desktop thanks to its 700 Mhz ARM CPU. But the Raspberry Pi is also suitable as an inexpensive media center for the living room: Thanks to its HDMI output and the XBMC interface, videos with 1080p resolution can be displayed on a screen as well as on a TV without any problems.

Above all, however, the mini computer is extremely popular with tinkerers and programmers who like to experiment. Various tech projects can be carried out simply and easily with the help of the Raspberry Pi: For example, the mini-computer can be used to create a game console, a robot or a weather station. Perhaps the most characteristic feature of the Raspberry Pi is its compactness: the dimensions of the small computer - depending on the model - are only up to 93.0 mm x 63.5 mm x 20.0 mm. At the same time, the powerful circuit board is only as big as a credit card.

The Raspberry Pi is available in different versions and is constantly optimized and re-released by its creators. At Berrybase, the in-house store of Raspberry Pi, you will not only find all Raspberry Pi models - you will also get a huge range of electronic products for countless applications - both from our own production and from established top brands. So nothing stands in the way of your next tech project!