Chapter 2 ● Raspberry Pi — A Success Story

The Raspberry Pi has undoubtedly made history. Its development represents an incredible success story. It is the first single-board computer from a globally active foundation that has been sold millions of times. After the first prototypes were completed in 2006, the first Raspberry Pi was offered on the market six years later. The goal of providing young people with cost-effective computer technology for their own projects was achieved beyond any doubt.

2.1 The beginnings: Pi Classic

Eben Upton, the initiator of the Raspberry Pi project, recognized a serious problem in education. Eben studied Physics and Engineering at the University of Cambridge before working for renowned companies such as Broadcom, Intel, and IBM. He worked on his single-board computer project for five years, from 2006 to 2011, mostly in the evenings and on weekends.

Hardware and computer systems were only available at high prices. This led to a situation where students and pupils hardly dealt with computer science, and the computer industry suffered from a lack of skilled workers. A novel and low-cost computer system should fundamentally change this. Since computer manufacturers always liked to use fruits as namesakes ("Apple, Acorn, Apricot, etc."), this tradition was to be continued with the Raspberry. The addition "Pi" on the other hand, referred to the programming language Python, with which the devices are mainly programmed.

The Raspberry Pi has left a clear mark in the history of computer technology. It is an incredible story, from an engineer building single-board computers in his spare time to a global foundation that has sold over 15 million devices worldwide.

The history of the Raspberry Pi began in 2006 with the creation of the first prototypes. Six years later, the first Raspberry Pi was born. The main goal was to help young people discover computer technology at low cost - a maximum of around $30 was the target. Now that you understand why the Raspberry Pi exists, let's learn more about the hardware specifications and the development of the Raspberry Pi from the beginning.

Originally, only two models were planned:

• Model A (affordable)

• Model B (fast)

The first version cost about $25, which was achieved by making a special selection of hardware components, such as fewer USB ports and less RAM. The Raspberry Pi 1 Model A had the following specifications:

• Processor: ARM 700 MHz

• Memory: 256 MB

• 1 USB port

• 8 GPIO pins

• HDMI, audio, and SD slot

The Pi 1 Model A+ followed, among others, with 17 GPIO pins and a Micro-SD card slot instead of an SD card slot. This made the Raspberry Pi 1 Model A+ smaller and lighter than the first version.

The Model B is a more powerful version with 512 MB, 2 USB ports, HDMI, and a 10/100 Ethernet port. With 500,000 units sold in the first 6 months, it was a tremendous sales success.

In 2015 and 2016, the Raspberry Pi 2 B was released with two sub-versions. For the first time, this broke through the 1 GB RAM barrier. In February 2016, the Raspberry Pi B version 3 was released, which introduced wireless communication capabilities such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth directly on the main board. This was followed by the Pi 3 B+ and the "Zero" model. The Zero was the first board that was significantly smaller than the previously known versions (about 65 mm x 30 mm). Due to the lack of space, there are fewer ports, but the CPU and RAM are sufficient for many projects. This was followed by the Zero W with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as a built-in camera connector.

The sales figures of the Raspberry Pi Foundation speak for themselves: by 2012: about 500,000 units sold; by 2013: about 2 million units sold; by 2015: about 5 million units sold; by 2016: about 10 million units sold; by 2017: about 12 million units sold; by 2018: about 20 million units sold.

In 2020, the 30 million pieces mark was exceeded. The Raspberry Pi has thus become one of the most successful "mother boards" of all time!

2.2 A New Era: Pi Pico

The Raspberry Pi Pico was introduced in January 2021 carrying a retail price tag of 4 US dollars. It was the first board from the Raspberry Pi Foundation based on a single microcontroller chip. The RP2040 controller, independently developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, features an Arm Cortex M0+ processor core, as well as a flexible clock frequency of up to 133 MHz.

Although the Pico is not technically superior to other controllers, it quickly established itself in the market. The affordable price and some special features such as the programmable input-output units (PIO) certainly played a significant role in the Pico's success.

Since mid-2022, a WiFi-enabled version of the Pico, the Pico W, has also been available. It is expected to pose a serious competition for rival boards.

Like the first Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi Pico was not developed with the goal of achieving maximum commercial success. The main focus was simply to cover the costs and generate a small profit that would allow the development of new versions. The most important hope was once again to offer a development board that is easy to use, powerful, flexible, and as inexpensive as possible. These goals were achieved, and with a price of 4 dollars, the Pico achieved the fantastic milestone of 1 million units sold after one month on the market.

With the Raspberry Pi Pico, the company aims to achieve similar goals as with the Raspberry Pi. What was accomplished with the first board in general computing is intended to be achieved with the Pico in microcontroller technology. Therefore, the RP2040 chip is of great importance for the future development of the Pi Foundation.

It is certainly worth keeping an eye on the Pico. Given the strong response, it is very likely that the number of projects and applications for the Pico will increase as much as for the classic Pi. This creates a multitude of new options, particularly when considering the possibilities that arise from the combination of both worlds.