Raspberri Pi 2

[tmbrown97]

So, this may be old news to a lot of people - I'm not sure... but I just found this out today and it just went on sale today from what I could tell.  There is now a Raspberri Pi 2 available for purchase now that's quite an upgrade from the original - they went from a single core 700mhz processor to a quad core 900mhz one (reportedly 6x increase in performance) and doubled the RAM from 512 to 1GB.  It also went from an ARMv6 to ARMv7 which has some significance.
 
The really interesting thing to me at least was that in doing this upgrade, they made it absolute 100% compatible with the existing Pi - meaning exact same cases, same existing code, same everything - and even the same price at $35.  While I'm sure people would've loved to see some changes - maybe more USB or other components... when you think about a $35 computer, then add case, SD Card, and all the peripherals, it gets up closer to $75 or more... but since they kept everything identical, you can really just get a $35 major upgrade.
 
Additionally, the Pi folks have actually been working with Microsoft and thanks to the new ARMv7 architecture, Microsoft is going to support Windows 10 on the Pi 2 - and it'll be FREE for makers!
 
More details:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/raspberry-pi-2-on-sale/ 

 

[pete_c]

Yeah here have been overclocking (well on and off) the original RPi running Homeseer3 to 900Mhz. 
 
I also did add an RTC to it a few months back.
 
I wonder if I will be able to utilize the Microsoft Kinect with the RPi running Windows 10?
 
BTW RPi has changed the sale link above.  You can probably utilize this one as the new price of the new RPi is here too.
 
It would be nice if you could boot the OS from a USB stick.  Here still using an old Seagate Dockstar (PogoPlug) today running with two SSD drives.  Its been doing fine now for a few years.

 

[JimS]

There are many similar choices available at the same, or nearly the same, price.  Many have better performance than the pi if that is needed.  The pi has more support, examples, etc so it all depends on what you want to do....
 
The odroid C1 is $35:
http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G141578608433&tab_idx=1
(they also have a US distributor)
http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/02/02/raspberry-pi-2-odroid-c1-development-boards-comparison/
 
Another common choice is the Beagle Bone Black for only a bit more.
 
There are lots of others and more being announced. 

 

[tmbrown97]

No doubt there are lots of players out there competing and to someone with better linux skills than I have and/or more time on their hands then there may be some game changing features.  You touched on what attracts me to the Pi though which is that there are TONS of examples, scripts, blog posts, etc for just about anything you could want to run on it, including PBXs, Media Players, bootable usable Linux desktops, routers, digital picture frames, and anything else you could dream of.  It lets me feel like I'm earning some geek points without having to truly get my hands dirty!  h34r:

 

[NeverDie]

Being able to run Windows 10 on it, if it's not too sluggish, will open the Pi up to a much bigger audience.  Linux just doesn't have anywhere near the application base that Windows has.

 

[wuench]

It is ARM based so it will be in the same boat as Windows RT as far as what apps it can run.

 

[NeverDie]

Doh!  You're right.  I overlooked that.  
 
So.... Why would anyone want to run windows on a Pi?  To play Solitaire?

 

[Dean Roddey]

It is ARM based so it will be in the same boat as Windows RT as far as what apps it can run.

 
Not quite the same. RT was further hampered by the fact that it only ran applications for the Windows RT OS, which wasn't Windows proper. In this case, if it's running actual Windows 10, then standard Windows apps can run on it with a recompile (and being careful to deal with big vs. little endian issues.) But that's a vastly shorter row to hoe than trying to create a second implementation of the applications to run specially on RT. In theory, it wouldn't be THAT huge a deal to get CQC running on such a board. Though I don't know what the situation is wrt to development tools and debugging tools.
 
Can Visual Studio spit out ARM code and do remote debugging of an app running on one of these guys? If so, then the development situation wouldn't be bad at all. If it requires completely different development tools, that would be a big down side.
 
Well, to answer part of my own question, it does have an /arch option for ARM, in addition to X32 and X64, so presumably it can compile to ARM  code. Whether that means for standard Windows OS targets or if that's just a hold over from the RT stuff and it only deals with RT apps in that mode, I dunno. But presumably MS uses their own VS tools to build an ARM version of Windows 10, so I assume it can be done or will soon be doable.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

 But presumably MS uses their own VS tools to build an ARM version of Windows 10, so I assume it can be done or will soon be doable.

That makes sense.  Why else 'give' the operating system to developers and not to tout their own development suite.

 

[wuench]

A solid state RPi CQC controller that would fit in my enclosure.[SIZE=14.4444446563721px]Now I am getting excited.  [/SIZE]

 

[pete_c]

Got an Microsoft tickle email yesterday regarding Windows development on the ARM RPi with a reminder that the Intel Galileo (2) stuff has not stopped and will continue.