Chapter 1 - A Very Brief History

Before we begin to build, think, and create with the Raspberry Pi, I think it is healthy to look back at the brief (as of mid 2016), yet impactful history of this tiny device. The Raspberry Pi computer was released in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in February 2012.⁴ The original intention of the device was to inspire young people to discover how a computer worked inside and out - both from a hardware and software perspective. Eben Upton, the creator of the Raspberry Pi, was concerned youth were only learning rudimentary computer skills (word processing, presentation software, etc.) in school computing courses rather than gaining an understanding of the relationship between writing computer software and its interaction with computer hardware.⁵.

Mr. Upton, who at the time was assisting with college admissions at the University of Cambridge, noticed most students enrolling in technical university programs had little, if any, computer programming experience before entering university. This was concerning to him. Upton was inspired by early personal computers designed to be modified or “hacked”, such as the BBC Micro⁷. Introduced in the 1980s in the UK, the BBC Micro computer did not have a graphical user interface (GUI), rather the learners had to learn the relationship between the software, through computer code, and the hardware in order to get the machine to operate according to the their needs.⁸ Modern computers, tablets, and smartphones intentionally hide this relationship from the user, making them not great tools to teach higher-level computing skills. Eventually, Upton worked with colleagues at Broadcom Corporation - where he is a microprocessor chip engineer - to start the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the $35 credit card-sized computer was born.⁹

Although the Raspberry Pi computer was originally intended to spark an interest in creative computing amongst young people, the device quickly began attracting a much broader audience upon release. Computer hobbyists found the Raspberry Pi to be a perfect platform for many of their DIY computer projects.¹⁰ Why spend hundreds of dollars on a laptop or smartphone when the Raspberry Pi has more than enough computational power for most hobby projects, and costs only $35?

Today, the Raspberry Pi Foundation produces several models of the Raspberry Pi computer. As of September 2016, the Foundation has sold more than ten million units, making it the all-time best selling computer in the UK. ¹¹