two questions: why USB2 instead of USB3 and will there be a multi-nic version at some point?

Why not use one of the USB ports to host a USB NIC? If you're using it as a cable/DSL firewall, you'd not see any benefit from USB3 over USB2 unless you've got phenominal broadband where you live. Also, I think they're using USB2 purely for cost - USB3 would have pushed it over the $35 target price + I don't think the CPU could keep up, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Your missing the point of this device... its meant to be LOW Cost, Programable and get kids into the real computing experience. Lets not confuse this with the Foundations goals here. Sorry

The more you add the less its feasible to make at low cost.

The device is made for kids not for us. We can buy it because among us there are software/hardware developers that just might have something to contribuite to THE PROJECT.

Get a router

i dont agree its just made for kids... it needs us adults to take a hold of the device and help the younger generation get excited about this sort of technology

And that means it's made for the kids

RasPi's BCM2835 only has a USB 2.0 port.  The Model B hooks this up to an SMSC LAN9512 2-port USB hub with Ethernet.  Given that the connection to the CPU is USB 2.0, there is really no point to hooking it up externally to anything faster.  If you want a high-performance firewall, you'll need something with built-in Ethernet ports.

The raspberrypi.org site is still suspended due to high traffic of loyal Razzers seeing if it's back up yet.  However, you can get RasPi technical information at the Wiki: http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard and http://elinux.org/Rpi_Hardware.

I know the founding principle of the Raspberry Pi organisation is to promote programming amongst the youth of today, and I couldn't agree more with their ideals, especially as I was probably the only kid in my school coding ARM assembler on their Acorn RISC OS computers. However, I bought one because

a) it's dirt cheap for what it does,

b) I'd like to be able to stream Airplay video/music into my son's bedroom but can't justify buying an apple tv (nor the hdmi telly to go with it)

c) if b) doesn't work, there's a fair few GPIO ports for me to play with

I'd also like to point out that even though I'm not at school, nor am a teacher, I have already contributed back to the RPi foundation by actually buying an RPi.

Finally, wouldn't setting up a firewall using an RPi be a good way of educating (admittedly older) kids about networking and the various types of traffic/ports etc without going into too much detail? And I can remember seeing a linux tutorial that explained how to turn web images upside-down if your neighbours were freeloading your wifi... I'd have loved to have done something like that at school.

And I can remember seeing a linux tutorial that explained how to turn web images upside-down if your neighbours were freeloading your wifi... I'd have loved to have done something like that at school.

Would be nice if you could find and post a link to that tutorial :-)

alfon1917 wrote:

 

And I can remember seeing a linux tutorial that explained how to turn web images upside-down if your neighbours were freeloading your wifi... I'd have loved to have done something like that at school.

 

Would be nice if you could find and post a link to that tutorial :-)

I believe this is what's being refered to:

   http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html

During the design of RPi we had to make lots of difficult decisions about what to put on and what to leave off.

Once we had the basic functionality for running Linux and getting a display, pretty much everything else came down to space and/or meeting the cost target we had set.

Although we had other ports that we could have probably added more Ethernet Functionality to it would have significantly added to the complexity of the design. The SMSC LAN9512 works brilliantly for us as it gives us the Ethernet and a second USB in a very cost effective way.

The model A dispenses with this chip and we run the BCM2835 USB straight out.

To get round this limitation what most people are planning is to use a 3-4 port USB Hub, wire one back to the Micro USB on the RPi to provide the power (we can do this as the data pins are not connected) and it then gives 3 spare ports for mouse, keyboard, memory stick etc.

We have tried to give as many routes to expand the RPi as possible but have not compromised the baseline price points. So onboard Camera, Wifi, LCD drive and other good stuff got trimmed off the wish list fairly early on.

We have also been asked quite a bit about Power over Ethernet but if you look at the demand trail it has mainly come from application ideas well away from our original goals.

Let us know what you think, have we made a ‘wrong turn’ in our drive to Raspberry Pi Models A and B?

Cheers – Pete

Trustee and part of the Hardware Design Team.