Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting Up to No Good
Welcome, fellow pranksters and mischief-makers, to the beginning of your journey
towards a stealthier lifestyle. Naturally, you're all anxious to get started with the cool
stuff, so we'll only devote this first, short chapter to the basic steps you'll need to get
your Raspberry Pi up and running.
First we'll get to know the hardware a little better, and then we'll go through the
installation and configuration of the Raspbian operating system.
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to connect to your Raspberry Pi
through your local network and be up to date with the latest and greatest software
for your Pi.
A brief history lesson on the Pi
The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized computer created by the non-profit Raspberry
Pi Foundation in the UK. It all started when a chap named Eben Upton (now
an employee at Broadcom) got together with his colleagues at the University of
Cambridge's computer laboratory, to discuss how they could bring back the kind of
simple programming and experimentation that was widespread among kids in the
1980s on home computers such as the BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum, and Commodore 64.
After several years of tinkering, the Foundation came up with two designs for the
Raspberry Pi. The $35
Model B
was released first, around February 2012, originally
with 256 MB of RAM. A second revision, with 512 MB of RAM, was announced in
October 2012 and the $25
Model A
went on sale the following year, in February 2013.
In July 2014, with over 3 million Pis sold worldwide, the Foundation unveiled
the Raspberry Pi
Model B+
, a $35 final board revision incorporating numerous
improvements requested by the ever-growing Pi community.
