Raspberry Pi: The Small Computer that Sparked a Coding Revolution

The Raspberry Pi, a small, affordable, and durable computer, has come a long way since its inception. From its humble beginnings as a project to reverse the decline in computer science applications at Cambridge University, it has inspired a generation of child programmers and has now become a staple in various industries.

A small but powerful computer

The Raspberry Pi was designed by Cambridge engineers and computer scientists to be an ultra-low-cost piece of hardware that could withstand being tossed into a backpack hundreds of times. Since its launch in 2012, about 60 million of these credit card-sized devices, which run the Linux operating system, have been sold.

The Raspberry Pi in action

Behind the British tech firm is an eponymous educational charity that was established in 2008 with the goal of getting children interested in computer science. The foundation provides education resources, coding clubs, programs, and competitions that have reached more than 100 countries.

Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi

One of the six founders of the Raspberry Pi Foundation is Eben Upton, who is now the chief executive of Raspberry Pi. Upton, who studied physics, engineering, and computer science at Cambridge, started developing the first single-board computer prototypes in the evenings and at weekends while working at Broadcom.

The BBC Micro, a computer that inspired the Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi was inspired by the BBC Micro, a computer released in 1981 by Acorn Computers in Cambridge with a simple programming language that young children could follow. It started a computing revolution, and later influenced the Raspberry Pi.

The manufacturing process of the Raspberry Pi

The foundation is part of a group that runs the National Centre for Computing Education in England, a government-funded initiative providing support for schools and colleges in England to offer a computing education, from key stage 1 through to A-level.

The Raspberry Pi in education

As the Raspberry Pi prepares to list on the London Stock Exchange, it’s hard to believe how far it has come. From its humble beginnings to its current success, the Raspberry Pi has truly made a mark in the world of computer science.

‘Given how far we’ve come, it’s sort of funny to remember how parochial our ambitions were at the start,’ Upton has said.

‘There was a massive decline in the number of people applying to study computer science, which was sort of heartbreaking in a place like Cambridge, with its incredibly rich computing heritage. There was a feeling that if we could get a program or a piece of hardware into the hands of young people at the right point in their lives, we might be able to do something to reverse that decline.’

The Raspberry Pi has truly lived up to its promise, inspiring a generation of coders and making a significant impact in the world of computer science.