When the Raspberry Pi foundation launched the first version of its eponymous product in 2012, they cannot have imagined the reception their tiny, single-board computer would receive. Eight years later and now in its fourth generation, the Raspberry Pi has become one of the world’s best selling computers, quickly realising its intention of reversing the downward trend in university computer science applications and fuelling a new generation of enthusiasts to explore programming through play. But how did a device as small as a credit card and with very few commercial expectations, wind up selling more than thirty-six million units and transforming the way we think about ‘the computer’?

A Seed is Planted

In the early years of the twenty-first century, computer scientists at the University of Cambridge began to notice a decline in the number of applications for undergraduate study. This was mirrored at universities across the country and coincided with an apparent gap in knowledge of those who did apply; whilst all candidates were proficient computer users, few demonstrated a deep understanding of the subject’s more technical aspects. Putting this down to failings in GSCE and A level syllabuses, the team set out to develop a small, accessible device that could serve both as a teaching tool in schools and a cheap, portable unit for enthusiasts young and old to experiment with. And so the Raspberry Pi project was born...

Inspiring Kids to Code

Inspiring the next generation of programmers through reigniting a curiosity for how computers work was the founding principal of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The Cambridge team - Eben Upton, Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and Alan Mycroft - were joined in 2008 by David Braben - CEO of Frontier Developments and co-author of the celebrated ‘Elite’ games, and Pete Lomas - managing director of Norcott Technologies. Together they set out to make their collective vision a reality; to produce a simple, almost disposable product that induced in its users the same excitement that the developers had felt as youngsters growing up in the eighties, when they learned to write code on easily programmable computers.

A Brief History of Computers in the Classroom

When computers first began to appear in British classrooms during the early 1980s, their relative primitivism - compared with modern devices, inadvertently helped spawn a generation of programmers. Fuelled by a government funding initiative that promised to put up half the cost of each unit, computers like the BBC Micro (made by Acorn and favoured by most educational authorities) and the RM 380Z were installed in schools across the country, and despite hostility from some teachers who didn’t know what to do with the new machines, they proved very popular with technology-curious students.

For those of you too young to remember these early machines, the difference between these devices and those that emerged in the ensuing decades was stark. There were no windows or icons, no mouse; the start up screen - a command line interface with a flashing underscore - gave the user only two options: enter a recognisable command to launch a program, or program the computer yourself using the inbuilt BASIC language.

For many students, exploring programming in this way, sparked a deep interest in computing and its potentially wide-ranging applications. Through what was essentially ‘playing’ - fixing bugs, experimenting with commands and copying source code from magazines, youngsters gained a complete education in computer science that later generations were subsequently denied.

Computer literacy soon became a mandatory educational target and by the close of the century most secondary students were required to study what became known as ICT - Information and Communications Technology - in one form or another. However, whilst theoretically a universal approach to embedding computers in the curriculum might have seemed like a good thing, in reality the content of the courses on offer and the lack of training for teaching staff, combined with the ever increasing sophistication of the hardware and software available to schools, led to a crop of apparently tech-savvy kids with little - if any - understanding of programming.

The Proof is in the Pi

Recognising that programming was a fundamental skill increasingly absent in the secondary curriculum was one of the key drivers behind developing the Raspberry Pi. The shortfall in coding capability, together with the realisation that rapid advances in technology had actually played a big hand in creating this problem, helped mould the foundation’s mission of getting back to the simple machines that were around in the eighties, and in doing so they hoped to buck the trend of using computers for consumption rather than creation.

It has been said many times that the original hand assembled Raspberry Pi prototype that Eben Upton created in 2006, bore little resemblance to the model that launched commercially six years later. But whilst the unit itself lacked power and the design was somewhat unrefined and most definitely not user-friendly, the concept of a bare board model through which users could learn about individual components, excited Upton and the rest of the team.

The first generation Raspberry Pi was released in February 2012 at a price point of £25 ($35). Its ARM-based Broadcom BCM2835 system-on-a-chip with 700MHz single-core processor and capable graphics core ensured a level of performance that was, for many, unimaginable in a device of this size. With 512MB of RAM, two USB 2.0 ports, 100Mbps Ethernet, HDMI and twenty-six exposed GPIO pins, the 45g model almost immediately transcended the cautious commercial ambitions of the foundation. Selling 100,000 units on launch and appealing to hobbyists and computing enthusiasts far beyond the target youth market, the Raspberry Pi’s stripped-back simplicity, portability and price, rendered it an instant phenomenon.

But the project’s popularity and the huge community that grew around it came as something of a surprise to the Raspberry Pi team. Realising that demand for the product was far greater than their capacity to supply, the team licensed the design to RS Components and Premier Farnell, and thus enabled production on a grand scale.

The Fruits of their Labour

Eight years on from the release of the first model, the Raspberry Pi’s momentum shows no sign of abating. With university computer science applications up across the country and applicants demonstrating a more comprehensive understanding of the subject, the foundation has achieved its principal aim: making computer engineering accessible for all, irrespective of age or income, and reigniting an enthusiasm for code as creative practice.

But that’s not all. Across the globe, versions of this tiny computer have been used in a seemingly endless range of personal and industrial projects ranging from games development and design to home automation and DIY. There are even two models - so-called ‘Astro Pis’ - aboard the International Space Station, running code written by children and teenagers here on Earth!

The latest releases - the fourth generation bare board model and the Raspberry Pi 400 (marketed as a ‘complete personal computer built into a compact keyboard’), have genuine claims as viable desktop PCs. As with each iteration, the latest model(s) offer an upgrade in speed and performance and boast up to 8GB of RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, enhanced USB capacity and the ability to run two monitors in 4K definition.

A world apart from the original in terms of performance, the 2020 models showcase why the Raspberry Pi continues to take the technological world by storm. Although various competitors have emerged in the market - some of which have been able to match the Pi on performance / price - none demonstrate the constant evolution and huge global community that give the Raspberry Pi its enduring appeal.