When Raspberry Pi was announced, it was touted as a tiny $25 computer made to encourage younger generations to learn how to code. The model that reached the market first (the same one Google recently donated 15,000 of to UK schools) was a relatively souped up version. While still very affordable, this version costs $10 more. Today, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced in a blog post that the $25 Raspberry Pi Model A is finally available, but only in Europe. The rest of the of world will have to wait a bit longer to get it.
“We are very, very pleased to finally be able to offer you a computer for $25,” the foundation wrote in the blog post. “It’s what we said we’d do all along, and we can’t wait to see what you do with it.” Model A is an even more basic mini-computer compared to the $35 Model B. It has one USB port instead of two, no Ethernet port, and only has 256MB of RAM instead of 512MB. Despite the stripped-down specs, Model A uses a third of the power Model B uses, so it has a number of potential applications. It can be used for projects requiring low-power computers ran by solar power or batteries, such as robots, remote sensors, and Wi-Fi repeaters.
You could order and pay for Model A right now if you want to, but the Foundation warns that if you’re outside Europe, you might suffer from delays because it still has paperwork to fix to be able to ship out the mini-computers. The Raspberry Pi Foundation promises that it’s working to lift this restriction “very soon” so non-Europeans can get their hands on Model A Pis, too.
