Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 8
Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi, shown in its full glory in Figure
8-1
, is one of computing's modern marvels-a credit-card-sized
single board computer, capable of running Linux, its applications, and capable of handling playback of HD video.
Launched on Febuary 29, 2012, it has now been released in three different versions, with the current two versions
being the Model A (256 Mbyte with USB) and the Model B (512 Mbyte, with 2 x USB and Ethernet). For the sake of an
extra $10, there's no reason to not consider the Model B! Neither machine is sold with a power supply, case, keyboard,
mouse, or anything necessary to make it work (which provides users with their first dose of education!), so it is as
cheap as it could possibly be.
Figure 8-1.
The barebones Raspberry Pi, at 85.6 x 56.0 x 21.0mm
The Raspberry Pi within HA
For many people, the Raspberry Pi is a small, cheap, Linux machine. But to think of it
only
in these terms is missing
the point. When broadband was first introduced, people thought of it as “a fast dial-up service,” with a nice benefit
of being online all the time and nothing more. In reality, having a permanent connection changed the way everyone
used the Internet. Having home servers, and consequently HA, was a viable possibility for the first time, allowing
people to have a private data store and control system. In a similar fashion, having a computer this small isn't a
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