The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a British

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * Ch ...

and company founded in 2009 to promote the study of basic

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

in schools, and is responsible for developing the

Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi () is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic ...

single-board computers.

Foundation

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a charitable organization registered with the

Charity Commission for England and Wales , type = Non-ministerial government department , seal = , seal_caption = , logo = Charity Commission for England and Wales logo.svg , logo_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , d ...

. The board of trustees was assembled by 2008 and the ''Raspberry Pi Foundation'' was founded as a registered charity in May 2009 in Caldecote, England. In 2016, The Foundation moved its headquarters to Station Road, Cambridge. The Foundation is supported by the

University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory The Department of Computer Science and Technology, formerly the Computer Laboratory, is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. it employed 35 academic staff, 25 support staff, 35 affiliated research staff, and about 15 ...

and

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...

. Its aim is to "promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing." Project co-founder Eben Upton is a former academic, currently employed by

as a

system-on-chip A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memo ...

architect and associate technical director. Components, albeit in small numbers, were able to be sourced from suppliers, due to the charitable status of the organization.

History

When the decline in numbers and skills of students applying for

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

became a concern for a team that included Eben Upton, Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and Alan Mycroft at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory in 2006, a need for a tiny and affordable computer came to their minds. Several versions of the early Raspberry Pi prototypes were designed but were very limited by the high cost and low power processors for mobile devices at that time. In 2008, the team started a collaboration with Pete Lomas, MD of Norcott Technologies and David Braben, the co-author of the seminal

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an empha ...

game

Elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. ...

, and formed the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Three years later, the Raspberry Pi Model B was born and it had sold over two million units within two years of mass production.

Founders and leadership

The original founders of the organization include: * Eben Upton , co-founder *

David Cleevely David Douglas Cleevely, CBE, FREng, FIET (born September 1953) is a British entrepreneur and international telecoms expert who has built and advised many companies, principally in Cambridge, UK. Telecommunications In 1985 Cleevely found ...

, chairman * Rob Mullins, senior lecturer in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge * Jack Lang, affiliated lecturer in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and the founder of Electronic Share Information Ltd * Alan Mycroft, professor of computing in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge * David Braben, CEO of Frontier Developments and co-writer of the 1984 game ''

'' *

Sue Sentance Susan Sentance is a British computer scientist, educator and director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation Computing Education Research Centre at the University of Cambridge. Her research investigates a wide range of issues computer science education, ...

, Chief Learning Officer (CLO) * Carrie Anne Philbin , Director of Educator Support In early 2013 the organization split into two parts: Raspberry Pi Foundation, which is responsible for the charitable and educational activities; and Raspberry Pi Trading Ltd, responsible for the engineering and trading activities. Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Raspberry Pi Foundation, with the money earned from sales of

products being used to fund the charitable work of the Foundation. Eben Upton was initially CEO of both divisions, but in September 2013 Lance Howarth became CEO of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, with Eben Upton remaining as CEO of Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd. Philip Colligan took over from Lance Howarth as CEO of Raspberry Pi Foundation in July 2015.

Acquisitions

In 2015 the Raspberry Pi Foundation acquired Code Club. In 2017 the Raspberry Pi Foundation acquired

CoderDojo CoderDojo is a global volunteer-led community of free programming workshops for young people. The movement is a grassroots organisation with individual clubs (called "Dojos") acting independently. A charity called the ''CoderDojo Foundation'' o ...

Trustees

As of 31 December 2015, the foundation has 7 Trustees: * Jack Lang (trustee and company secretary) * David Braben *

(Chairman) *

Sherry Coutu Sherry Coutu Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 1964) is a serial entrepreneur, former CEO, angel investor and non-executive director based in Cambridge, UK and originally from Canada. Career Coutu graduated from University of British Colum ...

(angel investor, Canadian but now Cambridge-based) * Louis Glass (corporate lawyer; partner at Olswang) *

Pete Lomas Pete or Petes or ''variation'', may refer to: People * Pete (given name) * Pete (nickname) * Pete (surname) Fictional characters * Pete (Disney), a cartoon character in the ''Mickey Mouse'' universe * Pete the Pup (a.k.a. 'Petey'), a characte ...

* Chris Mairs (chief scientist at

Metaswitch Networks Metaswitch Networks is a private UK-based company which was acquired by Microsoft in July 2020. Metaswitch Networks designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed telecommunications software to communication service providers, equipment manufa ...

) The Board of Trustees is elected by and supported by the Members of the Foundation, with Members serving in a voluntary role and coming from a range of backgrounds.

Early expectations

The Foundation expected that children would program using Scratch and that the input/output functionality would be used to control external devices. Additionally, the low power requirement facilitates battery-powered usage in robots, while the video capabilities have led to interest in use as a home media centre.

Education fund

In April 2014, the foundation announced a £1 million education fund to support projects that enhance the understanding of computing and to promote the use of technology in other subjects, particularly

STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushr ...

and creative arts for children. They offer to provide up to 50% of the total projected costs to successful applicants. Carrie Anne Philbin is the Director of Education.

Logo

In October 2011, the logo was selected from a number submitted from open competition. A shortlist of six was drawn up, with the final judging taking several days. The chosen design was created by Paul Beech and based on a

buckyball Buckminsterfullerene is a type of fullerene with the formula C60. It has a cage-like fused-ring structure (truncated icosahedron) made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons, and resembles a soccer ball. Each of its 60 carbon atoms is bonded t ...

Magazines

The ''Raspberry Pi Press'', the publishing imprint of Raspberry Pi Ltd, part of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, publishes few magazines: * '' The MagPi'' is the official magazine of the Raspberry Pi. * ''HackSpace'' is a magazine "for people who love to make things and those who want to learn" DIY,

3D printing 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

, etc. * ''Hello World'' is a "computing and digital making" magazine. * ''Wireframe'', is a magazine about videogames and videogame development. * '' Custom PC'', launched in is a UK-based computer magazine.

Products

Raspberry Pi

In 2011, the Raspberry Pi Foundation developed a

single-board computer A single-board computer (SBC) is a complete computer built on a single circuit board, with microprocessor(s), memory, input/output (I/O) and other features required of a functional computer. Single-board computers are commonly made as demonstrat ...

named the

. The Foundation's goal was to offer two versions, priced at US$25 and $35 (plus local taxes). The Foundation started accepting orders for the higher priced model on 29 February 2012.Richard Lawler, 29 February 2012
Raspberry Pi credit-card sized Linux PCs are on sale now, $25 Model A gets a RAM bump
Engadget Since then, several models with increased performance have been released. The Raspberry Pi is intended to stimulate the teaching of computer science in schools.Raspberry Pi: Cheat Sheet

Raspberry Pi Zero

In 2015 the foundation announced the Raspberry Pi Zero. This version of the microcomputer had a significantly reduced form factor and a lower price, launching at £4/$5. The new model features a 1 GHz, single-core CPU; 512 MiB RAM, USB and mini HDMI ports, micro USB power, and a HAT-compatible 40-pin header as well as composite video and reset header

As a fully functioning Linux system the Raspberry Pi Zero's 1 GHz processor is comparable to the middle of the road for the Intel Pentium 3 architecture (450 MHz to 1.4 GHz), a standard in 2000. The reduced price and smaller form factor encourages use in smaller and embedded projects.

Raspberry Pi Pico

Raspberry Pi Pico was released in January 2021 with a retail price of $4. It was Raspberry Pi's first board based upon a single microcontroller chip; the RP2040, which was designed by Raspberry Pi in the UK. The Pico has 264 KB of RAM and 2 MB of flash memory. It is programmable in MicroPython, CircuitPython, C and Basic. It has partnered with Vilros, Adafruit, Pimoroni, Arduino and SparkFun to build Accessories for Raspberry Pi Pico and variety of other boards using RP2040 Silicon Platform. Rather than perform the role of general purpose computer (like the others in the range) it is designed for physical computing, similar in concept to an Arduino.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Foundations based in the United Kingdom Charities based in Cambridgeshire Computer science organizations Education advocacy groups Educational charities based in the United Kingdom Educational technology non-profits Organizations established in 2009 Raspberry Pi