Industry info - What Is Raspberry PI & What Can It Do?
Time:2023-03-02
Views:1284
What Is It?
The Raspberry Pi is a micro-computer initially designed for education. It has all the components you would see on a normal desktop PC—a processor, RAM, HDMI port, audio output, and USB ports for adding peripherals like a keyboard and mouse.
Alongside these recognizable components is one of the key parts of the Pi—the GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) header. This is a block of pins that let you connect your Raspberry Pi to the real world, connecting things like switches, LEDs, and sensors (and more), which you control with some simple code.
It also runs a full desktop operating system based on Debian Linux, called Raspbian. If that doesn‘t mean much to you, consider that Windows, Linux, and Apple OS X are all operating systems.
What Is It for Then?
The Pi wasn‘t designed to be an office PC, and it doesn‘t run Windows. It doesn‘t come in a case, and you probably won‘t see it replacing PCs in an office anytime soon.
The Pi is geared toward programming, electronics, and DIY projects. It was initially created to tackle the decreasing number of students with skills and interest in computer science.
However, as its popularity and visibility have increased, people of all ages and backgrounds have formed a huge community of enthusiasts that are eager to learn.
What Can I Do With It?
If you want to use your Pi to improve your coding skills, you can use one of the supported programming languages (such as Python) to create programs. That could be anything from simply printing "Hello world" on screen, up to more complex projects, like making games.
If you are interested in hardware and electronics, you can enhance this programming by using the GPIO to add switches, sensors, and real-world physical inputs to talk to this code.
You can also add physical outputs like LEDs, speakers, and motors to do things when your code tells them to. Put these together, and you can make something like a robot in no time.
Moving away from programming, there are a large number of users that buy a Pi as an alternative to other devices. Using a Pi as a KODI media center is a popular project, for example, taking the place of more expensive off-the-shelf alternatives.
