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This R70 computer is not a Black Friday special

Raspberry Pi continues to drive down the cost of personal computers with a new product: the Raspberry Pi Zero that retails for the princely sum of $5, or in South African terms, just under R72.

Made in Wales, the Zero runs Raspbian and can be bought in the UK from The Pi Hut and Pimoroni, and in the US from Adafruit or from a brick-and-mortar Micro Center.

At the time of writing we couldn’t find any local stores stocking the Zero except for Pi Shop, which merely has a placeholder page with a “coming soon” notification posted on it.

Raspberry Pi Zero specs:

  • CPU: Broadcom BCM2835 (1GHz ARM11 core)
  • RAM: 512MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM
  • Dimensions:  65 mm X 30 mm X 5mm
  • Micro-SD card slot
  • Mini-HDMI socket – 1080p 60fps video output
  • Micro-USB sockets for data and power
  • Unpopulated 40-pin GPIO header (Identical pinout to Raspberry Pi Models A+,B+ and 2B)
  • Unpopulated composite video header

In a video announcing the Zero, CEO of Raspberry Pi trading Eben Upton explained the reasons behind the company producing such an affordable product:

These are two computers from my childhood: a BBC Microcomputer I bought  in 1989 for £220 (R4 756) , [and a] Commodore Amiga I bought in Christmas of 1992 for £199 (R4 302). When I bought each of these machines I basically had to drain all the money I had. I had to drain my bank account, my piggybank… all of my savings went into each of these. When I was a kid, the high cost of computers like these was a barrier to be learning programming. What we’ve tried to do with Raspberry Pi is make sure that cost is never going to be a barrier.

We really don’t think we’re going to be able to get it cheaper than this.

If the price tag wasn’t good enough, the Zero is being given away as a gift on the cover of the December issue of The MagPi magazine. While great for those in the US and UK, six international issues of  MagPi will cost you £50 (R1 080). Upton says that 10 000 free Zeros have been sent out with the magazine.

Since the exchange rate to the pound is a little on the awful side right now, it may end up cheaper for local enthusiasts to simply wait for the Pi Zero to appear on the Pi Shop.

[Source & Image – Raspberry Pi]

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