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 Applied science, practical discipli ...

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 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 ...

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 Eben Christopher Upton (born 5 April 1978) is the Welsh CEO of Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd., which runs the engineering and trading activities of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. He is responsible for the overall software and hardware architectur ...

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), memor ...

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 Applied science, practical discipli ...

became a concern for a team that included

, Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and

Alan Mycroft Alan Mycroft is a professor at the Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge, where he is also director of studies for computer science. Education Mycroft read mathematics at Cambridge then moved ...

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 David John Braben (born 2 January 1964) is a British video game developer and designer, founder and CEO of Frontier Developments, co-creator of the '' Elite'' series of space trading video games, first published in 1984. He is also a co-found ...

, 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 emphas ...

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. D ...

, 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: *

, 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 founded t ...

, chairman *

Rob Mullins Rob or ROB may refer to: Places * Rob, Velike Lašče, a settlement in Slovenia * Roberts International Airport (IATA code ROB), in Monrovia, Liberia People * Rob (given name), a given name or nickname, e.g., for Robert(o), Robin/Robyn * Rob ...

, 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 *

, professor of computing in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge *

, CEO of

Frontier Developments Frontier Developments is a British video game developer founded by David Braben in January 1994 and based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. Frontier is known for developing amusement park Construction and management simulation ...

and co-writer of the 1984 game ''

'' * Sue Sentance,

Chief Learning Officer A chief learning officer (CLO) is the highest-ranking corporate officer in charge of learning management. CLOs may be experts in corporate or personal training, with degrees in education, instructional design, business or similar fields. Qualifi ...

(CLO) *

Carrie Anne Philbin Carrie Anne Philbin is an English teacher of computer science and an author. She is a director of educator support at the Raspberry Pi Foundation and chairs the Computing At School (CAS) diversity and inclusion group, ''#CASInclude''. She wrote ...

, 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 Code Club is a voluntary initiative, founded in 2012. The initiative aims to provide opportunities for children aged 9 to 13 to develop coding skills through free after-school clubs. As of November 2015, over 3,800 schools and other public venu ...

. 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'' ...

Trustees

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

(Chairman) *

Sherry Coutu Sherry Coutu 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 Columbia, with a first class hono ...

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

Olswang Olswang was an international law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom and with additional offices in Reading, Brussels, Madrid, Paris, Singapore and, since 2011, Munich. It worked closely with a network of firms across eighty countries. ...

) * Pete Lomas * Chris Mairs (chief scientist at Metaswitch Networks) 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 "\n\n\n\n\nThe robots exclusion standard, also known as the robots exclusion protocol or simply robots.txt, is a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the site they are allowed to visi ...

, 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 mushro ...

and creative arts for children. They offer to provide up to 50% of the total projected costs to successful applicants.

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 ''The MagPi'' is the official Raspberry Pi magazine. It started off life as a free

'' 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 "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...

3D printing 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the Manufacturing, construction of a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design, CAD model or a digital 3D modeling, 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is ...

, etc. * ''Hello World'' is a "computing and digital making" magazine. * ''Wireframe'', is a magazine about videogames and videogame development. * ''

Custom PC ''Custom PC'' (usually abbreviated to 'CPC') is a UK-based computer magazine created by Mr Freelance Limited, and originally published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. It's aimed at PC hardware enthusiasts, covering topics such as modding, overcloc ...

'', 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 demonstrati ...

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