History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes
We like the people at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. We’ve also got no ambitions to become tech reviewers, but our occasional dabbling with Raspberry Pi hardware has led to the situation where we get sent devices before they are released with the implicit agreement that when release day comes, we’ll pop something on YouTube about it. It sounds pretty transactional, but then again, what isn’t? Anyway, we’re telling you for two reasons:
we’re a bit proud that it happens
so you read anything we say about the Raspberry Pi Foundation knowing that we benefit from being nice about them
The most recent heads-up we got was about their new Raspberry Pi 500+, the successor to the Raspberry Pi 500.
500 to 500+
What caught our eye with the transition from the 500 to the new 500+ was a similarity to the upgrade from the ZX Spectrum 48 to the ZX Spectrum 48+. “What’s a Spectrum 48?” you ask? Well gather round children and I’ll tell you what computers were like in the 1980s (and yes, my back does hurt).
The ZX Spectrum 48 was a British computer. It had a very basic integrated keyboard. Sinclair Research was based in Cambridge in the UK. They released an upgrade called the ‘plus’ that had a better keyboard. It cost about $250
The Raspberry Pi 500 is a British computer. It has a very basic integrated keyboard. The Raspberry Pi foundation is based in Cambridge in the UK. They released an upgrade called the ‘plus’ that has a better keyboard. It costs $200.
So that’s the bit that rhymes. Here are bits that don’t:
The Spectrum cost was about $750 in today’s money. So the Pi 500 has about 350,000 times more memory and is about 10,000 times faster than the Spectrum, for a quarter of the price.
Good things aren’t cheap, and cheap things aren’t good
Except this. This is cheap AND good. There’s not much to say about the 500+ other than that it’s a ridiculously capable computer for the form factor and price. Sure, there will be people who say that they can get a second hand PC or some Armbian board for less money, and some of them are right, but those options require a lot more time and effort in setting things up.
What’s more, if you’re looking for a gentle route into the rabbit hole that is mechanical keyboards then this may be the starter for you. The new rpi-keyboard-config tool integrates with Vial, letting you remap keys via the Vial web tool once firmware is updated. The Foundation will also publish the open-source firmware (based on QMK/Vial) for deep customisation.
Video
The 30 second video we made about the upgrade is below.
Future Upgrades
If this pattern continues and the Raspberry Pi Foundation continues to mirror Sinclair Reseach, then I for one am looking forward to the bit where Ebon Upton releases an electric tricycle like the Sinclair C5. I’ll be expecting similar gains, so it should have a range of about 10 million miles and travel at about 200 times the speed of sound.
