Les Pounder sits at the maker desk at Tom’s Hardware, but finds time to write articles for deadtree publishing now and again!
»A DECADE OF Pi
As we approach 10 years of Raspberry Pi, I’ve had a think about all that’s happened during this time. The first Pi went on sale on 29 February 2012, and sites selling the device crashed a few moments after release. It’s grown from a curiosity into a serious low-power desktop computer. The children who cut their teeth on the Pi in the past decade are the adults enacting change with the Pi. Science experiments, drones, robots, games consoles and more have been created with it.
So who’s to thank for all of this? Part of the credit must go to the Raspberry Pi Foundation of course, for sparking the minds of learners young and old. But the largest thanks go to you – the community. Before Covid we met at events, sharing our ideas and know-how just like the Linux community at large. In the Covid times we adapted, creating online clubs who (for now, at least) meet using video conferences and online chat systems.
Where will the next 10 years take us? As a community we’ll only get stronger and larger as more people and products are announced. With the recent news that the Raspberry Pi Foundation is consulting with financial advisors with a view to floating Raspberry Pi Trading for a projected £379 million (www. tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-plans-spring-2022- listing), we could see the foundation invest heavily in its own silicon. In early 2021 it released the RP2040 Armpowered SoC, and job adverts point to new ASIC engineer hires, the people who design new chips. Exciting times lie ahead!