Kinectimals Creator Sets His Sights On Building The $25 PC

David Braben, whose Frontier Developments studio has delivered Elite, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, LostWinds and, yes, Kinectimals, has now created Raspberry Pi. It’s not a game, it’s a working, Linux-based PC on something not much larger than a standard USB memory stick.

Raspberry Pi, a nonprofit effort akin to the One Laptop Per Child effort, is an entire computer on a small circuit board “not much more than an ARM processor, a USB port, and an HDMI connection,” says the BBC. At one end you plug it into a keyboard; at the other you connect a television. Voila, now you’re computing.

The team is trying to reduce production costs to £25 (about $US15) and shape it into a better-working prototype. But it’s a rather admirable start. Braben wishes for the tiny computer to be an inspiration to potential future scientists in their childhoods. Braben told the BBC that computing is today taught like typingwas taught when he was in school – as a practical application preparing students for employment, but not in a way to encourage creativity. The tiny, sticklike PC, he hopes, would be a symbol sparking wonder in would-be engineers.

A £15 Computer to Inspire Young Programmers [BBC]

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