CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO RASPBERRY PI
1.1 Introduction:
The Raspberry Pi is a series of credit card-sized single-board computers developed in the UK
by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic
computer science in schools.
The original Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi 2 are manufactured in several board
configurations through licensed manufacturing agreements with Newark element14 (Premier
Farnell), RS Components and Egoman. These companies sell the Raspberry Pi online.
Egoman produces a version for distribution solely in China and Taiwan, which can be
distinguished from other Pis by their red colouring and lack of FCC/CE marks. The hardware
is the same across all manufacturers.
The original Raspberry Pi is based on the Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC),
which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU, and was
originally shipped with 256 megabytes of RAM, later upgraded (models B and B+) to 512
MB. The system has Secure Digital (SD) (models A and B) or MicroSD (models A+ and B+)
sockets for boot media and persistent storage.
In 2014, the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched the Compute Module, which packages a
BCM2835 with 512 MB RAM and an eMMC flash chip into a module for use as a part of
embedded systems.
The Foundation provides Debian and Arch Linux ARM distributions for download. Tools are
available for Python as the main programming language, with support for BBC BASIC (via
the RISC OS image or the Brandy Basic clone for Linux), C, C++, Java, Perl and Ruby.
As of 18 February 2015, over five million Raspberry Pis have been sold. While already the
fastest selling British personal computer, it has also shipped the second largest number of
units behind the Amstrad PCW, the "Personal Computer Word-processor", which sold eight
million.
In early February 2015, the next-generation Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi 2, was officially
announced. The new computer board will initially be available only in one configuration

(model B) and features a Broadcom BCM2836 SoC, with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU
and a VideoCore IV dual-core GPU; 1 GB of RAM with remaining specifications being
similar to those of the previous generation model B+. Crucially, the Raspberry Pi 2 will retain
the same US$35 price point of the model B, with the US$25 model A remaining on sale.
As of February 2014, about 2.5 million boards have been sold. The board is available in India
online at a price of Rs.3000.

CHAPTER 2
HISTORY OF RASPBERRY PI
2.1 Introduction:
In 2006, early concepts of the Raspberry Pi were based on the Atmel ATmega644
microcontroller.

Its

schematics

and PCB layout

are

publicly

available. Foundation trustee Eben Upton assembled a group of teachers, academics and
computer enthusiasts to devise a computer to inspire children. The computer is inspired by
Acorn's BBC Micro of 1981.Model A, Model B and Model B+ are references to the original
models of the British educational Microcomputer, developed by Acorn Computers. The first
ARM prototype version of the computer was mounted in a package the same size as a USB
memory stick. It had a USB port on one end and an HDMI port on the other.
The Foundation's goal was to offer two versions, priced at US$25 and US$35. They started
accepting orders for the higher priced model B on 29 February 2012, the lower cost model A
on 4 February 2013. And the even lower cost (US$20) A+ on 10 November 2014.

Fig 2.1 : An early alpha-test board in operation using different layout from later beta and
production boards
2.2 Pre-launch:

July 2011 Trustee Eben Upton publicly approached the RISC OS Open community
in July 2011 to enquire about assistance with a port. Adrian Lees at Broadcom has
since worked on the port, with his work being cited in a discussion regarding the
graphics drivers. This port is now included in NOOBS.

August 2011 50 alpha boards are manufactured. These boards were functionally
identical to the planned model B, but they were physically larger to accommodate
debug headers. Demonstrations of the board showed it running the LXDE desktop on
Debian, Quake 3 at 1080p, and Full HD MPEG-4 video over HDMI.

October 2011 A version of RISC OS 5 was demonstrated in public, and following a

year of development the port was released for general consumption in November
2012.

December 2011 Twenty-five model B Beta boards were assembled and tested from
one hundred unpopulated PCBs.The component layout of the Beta boards was the
same as on production boards. A single error was discovered in the board design
where some pins on the CPU were not held high; it was fixed for the first production
run. The Beta boards were demonstrated booting Linux, playing a 1080p movie trailer
and the Rightware Samurai OpenGL ES benchmark.

Early 2012 During the first week of the year, the first 10 boards were put up for
auction on eBay. One was bought anonymously and donated to the museum at The
Centre for Computing History in Suffolk, England. The ten boards (with a total retail
price of 220) together raised over 16,000, with the last to be auctioned, serial
number No. 01, raising 3,500. In advance of the anticipated launch at the end of
February 2012, the Foundation's servers struggled to cope with the load placed by
watchers repeatedly refreshing their browsers.

2.3 Launch:
Raspberry Pi Model A

19 February 2012 The first proof of concept SD card image that could be loaded
onto an SD card to produce a preliminary operating system is released. The image
was based on Debian 6.0 (Squeeze), with the LXDE desktop and the Midori browser,
plus various programming tools. The image also runs on QEMU allowing the
Raspberry Pi to be emulated on various other platforms. 29 February 2012 Initial
sales commence 29 February 2012at 06:00 UTC;. At the same time, it was announced
that the Model A, originally to have had 128 MB of RAM, was to be upgraded to
256 MB before release. The Foundation's website also announced: "Six years after the
project's inception, we're nearly at the end of our first run of development although
it's just the beginning of the Raspberry Pi story." The web-shops of the two licensed
4

manufacturers selling Raspberry Pi's within the United Kingdom, Premier

Farnell and RS Components, had their websites stalled by heavy web traffic
immediately after the launch (RS Components briefly going down completely).
Unconfirmed reports suggested that there were over two million expressions of
interest or pre-orders. The official Raspberry Pi Twitter account reported that Premier
Farnell sold out within a few minutes of the initial launch, while RS Components took
over 100,000 pre orders on day one. Manufacturers were reported in March 2012 to
be taking a "healthy number" of pre-orders.

March 2012 Shipping delays for the first batch were announced in March 2012, as
the result of installation of an incorrect Ethernet port, but the Foundation expected
that manufacturing quantities of future batches could be increased with little difficulty
if required. "We have ensured we can get them [the Ethernet connectors with
magnetics] in large numbers and Premier Farnell and RS Components [the two
distributors] have been fantastic at helping to source components," Upton said. The
first batch of 10,000 boards was manufactured in Taiwan and China.

8 March 2012 Release Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix, the recommended Linux

distribution, developed at Seneca College in Canada.

March 2012 The Debian port is initiated by Mike Thompson, former CTO
of Atomz. The effort was largely carried out by Thompson and Peter Green, a
volunteer Debian developer, with some support from the Foundation, who tested the
resulting binaries that the two produced during the early stages (neither Thompson nor
Green had physical access to the hardware, as boards were not widely accessible at
the time due to demand). While the preliminary proof of concept image distributed by
the Foundation before launch was also Debian-based, it differed from Thompson and
Green's Raspbian effort in a couple of ways. The POC image was based on thenstable Debian Squeeze, while Raspbian aimed to track then-upcoming Debian
Wheezy packages. Aside from the updated packages that would come with the new
release, Wheezy was also set to introduce the armhf architecture, which became
the raison d'tre for the Raspbian effort. The Squeeze-based POC image was limited
to the armel architecture, which was, at the time of Squeeze's release, the latest
attempt by the Debian project to have Debian run on the newest ARM EABI.
The armhf architecture in Wheezy intended to make Debian run on the
ARM VFP hardware floating-point unit, while armel was limited to emulating
floating point operations in software. Since the Raspberry Pi included a VFP, being
5

able to make use of the hardware unit would result in performance gains and reduced
power usage for floating point operations. The armhf effort in mainline Debian,
however, was orthogonal to the work surrounding the Pi and only intended to allow
Debian to run on ARMv7 at a minimum, which would mean the Pi, an ARMv6
device, would not benefit. As a result, Thompson and Green set out to build the
19,000 Debian packages for the device using a custom build cluster.
2.4 Post-launch:

16 April 2012 Reports appear from the first buyers who had received their
Raspberry Pi.

20 April 2012 The schematics for the Model A and Model B are released.

18 May 2012 The Foundation reported on its blog about a prototype camera
module they had tested. The prototype used a 14-megapixel module.

22 May 2012 Over 20,000 units had been shipped.

16 July 2012 It was announced that 4,000 units were being manufactured per day,
allowing Raspberry Pis to be bought in bulk.

24 August 2012 Hardware accelerated video (H.264) encoding becomes available

after it became known that the existing license also covered encoding. Previously it
was thought that encoding would be added with the release of the announced camera
module. However, no stable software exists for hardware H.264 encoding. At the
same time the Foundation released two additional codecs that can be bought
separately, MPEG-2 and Microsoft's VC-1. Also it was announced that the Pi will
implement CEC, enabling it to be controlled with the television's remote control.

July 2012 Release of Raspbian.

5 September 2012 The Foundation announced a second revision of the Raspberry Pi

Model B. A revision 2.0 board is announced, with a number of minor corrections and
improvements.

6 September 2012 Announcement that in future the bulk of Raspberry Pi units

would

be

manufactured

in

the

UK,

at Sony's

manufacturing

facility

in Pencoed, Wales. The Foundation estimated that the plant would produce 30,000
units per month, and would create about 30 new jobs.

15 October 2012 It is announced that new Raspberry Pi Model Bs are to be fitted

with 512 MB instead of 256 MB RAM.
6

24 October 2012 The Foundation announces that "all of the VideoCore driver code
which runs on the ARM" had been released as free software under a BSD-style
license, making it "the first ARM-based multimedia SoC with fully-functional,
vendor-provided

(as

opposed

to

partial, reverse

engineered)

fully open-

source drivers", although this claim has not been universally accepted. On 28
February 2014, they also announced the release of full documentation for the
VideoCore IV graphics core, and a complete source release of the graphics stack
under a 3-clause BSD license.

October 2012 It was reported that some customers of one of the two main
distributors had been waiting more than six months for their orders. This was reported
to be due to difficulties in sourcing the CPU and conservative sales forecasting by this
distributor.

17 December 2012 The Foundation, in collaboration with IndieCity and Velocix,

opens the Pi Store, as a "one-stop shop for all your Raspberry Pi (software) needs".
Using an application included in Raspbian, users can browse through several
categories and download what they want. Software can also be uploaded for
moderation and release.

3 June 2013 'New Out Of Box Software or NOOBS is introduced. This makes the
Raspberry Pi easier to use by simplifying the installation of an operating system.
Instead of using specific software to prepare an SD card, a file is unzipped and the
contents copied over to a FAT formatted (4 GB or bigger) SD card. That card can
then be booted on the Raspberry Pi and a choice of six operating systems is presented
for installation on the card. The system also contains a recovery partition that allows
for the quick restoration of the installed OS, tools to modify the config.txt and an
online help button and web browser which directs to the Raspberry Pi Forums.

October 2013 The Foundation announces that the one millionth Pi had been
manufactured in the United Kingdom.

November 2013: they announce that the two millionth Pi shipped between 24 and 31
October.

28 February 2014 On the day of the second anniversary of the Raspberry Pi,
Broadcom, together with the Raspberry PI foundation, announced the release of full
documentation for the VideoCore IV graphics core, and a complete source release of
the graphics stack under a 3-clause BSD license.

Fig 2.2: Raspberry Pi Compute Module

7 April 2014 The official Raspberry Pi blog announced the Raspberry Pi Compute
Module, a device in the form factor of a 200-pin DDR2 SO-DIMM memory module
(though not in any way compatible with such RAM), intended for consumer
electronics designers to use as the core of their own products.

June 2014 The official Raspberry Pi blog mentioned that the three millionth Pi
shipped in early May 2014.

14 July 2014 The official Raspberry Pi blog announced the Raspberry Pi Model B+,
"the final evolution of the original Raspberry Pi. For the same price as the original
Raspberry Pi Model B, but incorporating numerous small improvements people have
been asking for".

10 November 2014 The official Raspberry Pi blog announced the Raspberry Pi

Model A+. It is the smallest and cheapest (US$20) Raspberry Pi so far and has the
same processor and RAM as the Model A and like the A it has no Ethernet port, and
just one USB port, but does have the other innovations of the B+, like lower power,
micro-SD-card slot, and 40 pins HAT compatible GPIO.

2 February 2015 The official Raspberry Pi blog announced the Raspberry Pi 2.

Looking like a Model B+, it has a 900 MHz quad-core ARMv7 Cortex-A7 CPU,
twice the memory (for a total of 1 GB) and complete compatibility with the original
generation of Raspberry Pis.

CHAPTER 3
IDEA BEHIND CREATING RASPBERRY PI
3.1 The main idea:
The idea behind a tiny and affordable computer for kids came in 2006, when Eben Upton,
Rob Mullins, Jack Lang and Alan Mycroft, based at the University of Cambridges Computer
Laboratory, became concerned about the year-on-year decline in the numbers and skills
levels of the A Level students applying to read Computer Science. From a situation in the
1990s where most of the kids applying were coming to interview as experienced hobbyist
programmers, the landscape in the 2000s was very different; a typical applicant might only
have done a little web design. Something had changed the way kids were interacting with
computers. A number of problems were identified: majority of curriculums with lessons on
using Word and Excel, or writing webpages; the end of the dot-com boom; and the rise of the
home PC and games console to replace the Amigas, BBC Micros, Spectrum ZX and
Commodore 64 machines that people of an earlier generation learned to program on.

Fig 3.1 : A complete commodore system

There isnt much any small group of people can do to address problems like an inadequate
school curriculum or the end of a financial bubble. But those students felt that they could try
to do something about the situation where computers had become so expensive and arcane
9

that programming experimentation on them had to be forbidden by parents; and to find a

platform that, like those old home computers, could boot into a programming environment.
Thus came the idea of creating the device which kids could buy and learn programming or
hardware on The Raspberry Pi.
3.2 Initial design considerations:
From 2006 to 2008 they created many designs and prototypes of what we now know as the
Raspberry Pi. One of the earliest prototypes is shown below:

Fig 3.2 : One of the earliest prototype of the Pi

These boards use an Atmel ATmega644 microcontroller clocked at 22.1MHz, and a 512K
SRAM for data and frame buffer storage. By 2008, processors designed for mobile devices
were becoming more affordable, and powerful enough to provide excellent multimedia, a
feature which would make the board desirable to kids who wouldnt initially be interested in
a purely programming-oriented device. The project started to look very realisable and
feasible. Eben (now a chip architect at Broadcom), Rob, Jack and Alan, teamed up with Pete
Lomas, MD of hardware design and manufacture company Norcott Technologies, and David
Braben, co-author of the BBC Micro game Elite, to form the Raspberry Pi Foundation to
make it a reality. Three years later, the Raspberry Pi Model B entered mass production

10

through licensed manufacture deals with Element 14/Premier Farnell and RS Electronics, and
within two years it had sold over two million units.
3.3 Accessories:
Raspberry Pi being a very cheap computer has attracted millions of users around the world.
Thus it has a large user base. Many enthusiasts have created accessories and peripherals for
the Raspberry Pi. This range from USB hubs, motor controllers to temperature sensors. There
are some official accessories for the RPi as follows: Camera On 14 May 2013, the
foundation and the distributors RS Components & Premier Farnell/Element 14 launched the
Raspberry Pi camera board with a firmware update to support it. The Raspberry Pi camera
board contains a 5 MPixel sensor, and connects via a ribbon cable to the CSI connector on the
Raspberry Pi. In Raspbian support can be enabled by the installing or upgrading to the latest
version of the OS and then running Raspi-config and selecting the camera option. The cost of
the camera module is 20 EUR in Europe (9 September 2013). and supports 1080p, 720p,
640x480p video. The footprint dimensions are 25 mm x 20 mm x 9 mm.
3.3.1 Gertboard A Raspberry Pi Foundation sanctioned device designed for educational
purposes, and expands the Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins to allow interface with and control of
LEDs, switches, analog signals, sensors and other devices. It also includes an optional
Arduino compatible controller to interface with the Pi. The Gertboard can be used to control
motors, switches etc. for robotic projects.

Fig 3.3 : Gertboard(left) and Raspberry Pi(right)

3.3.2 USB Hub Although not an official accessory, it is a highly recommended accessory
for the Pi. A powered USB Hub with 7 extra ports is available at almost all online stores. It is
11

compulsory to use a USB Hub to connect external hard disks or other accessories that draw
power from the USB ports, as the Pi cannot give power to them.

3.4 The NOOBS installer:

The Raspberry Pi package only comes with the main board and nothing else. It does not come
shipped with an operating system. Operating systems are loaded on a SD card from a
computer and then the SD card is inserted in the Pi which becomes the primary boot device.
Installing operating system can be easy for some enthusiasts, but for some beginners working
with image files of operating systems can be difficult. So the Raspberry Pi foundation made a
software called NOOBS New Out Of Box Software which eases the process of installing an
operating system on the Pi. The NOOBS installer can be downloaded from the official
website. A user only needs to connect a SD card with the computer and just run the setup file
to install NOOBS on the SD card. Next, insert the card on the Raspberry Pi.
On booting the first time, the NOOBS interface is loaded and the user can select from a list of
operating systems to install. It is much convenient to install the operating system this way.
Also once the operating system is installed on the card with the NOOBS installer, every time
the Pi boots, a recovery mode provided by the NOOBS can be accessed by holding the shift
key during boot. It also allows editing of the config.txt file for the operating system

12

CHAPTER 4
HARDWARE
4.1 Introduction:
In the block diagram below for model A, B, A+, B+; model A and A+ have the lowest two
blocks and the rightmost block missing (note that these three blocks are in a chip that actually
contains a three-port USB hub, with a USB Ethernet adapter connected to one of its ports). In
model A and A+ the USB port is connected directly to the SoC. On model B+ the chip
contains a five-point hub, with four USB ports fed out, instead of the two on model B.

Fig 4.1 : Hardware

4.2 Processor:
The SoC used in the first generation Raspberry Pi is somewhat equivalent to the chip used in
older smartphones (such

asiPhone / 3G / 3GS).

the Broadcom BCM2835 system

on

The

Raspberry
[1]

chip (SoC),

which

Pi

is

based

includes

on
an

700 MHz ARM1176JZF-S processor, VideoCore IV GPU,[8] and RAM. It has a Level
2 cache of 128 KB, used primarily by the GPU. The SoC is stacked underneath the RAM
chip, so only its edge is visible.
4.2.1 Performance of pre-Pi 2 models:

While operating at 700 MHz by default, the first generation Raspberry Pi provided a real
world performance roughly equivalent to 0.041 GFLOPS. On the CPU level the performance
is similar to a 300 MHz Pentium II of 1997-1999. The GPUprovides 1 Gpixel/s or
1.5 Gtexel/s of graphics processing or 24 GFLOPS of general purpose computing
performance. The graphics capabilities of the Raspberry Pi are roughly equivalent to the level
of performance of the Xbox of 2001.
The LINPACK single node compute benchmark results in a mean single precision
performance of 0.065 GFLOPS and a mean double precision performance of 0.041 GFLOPS
for one Raspberry Pi Model-B board. A cluster of 64 Raspberry Pi Model-B computers,

13

labeled "Iridis-pi", achieved a LINPACK HPL suite result of 1.14 GFLOPS (n=10240) at
216 watts for c. US$4,000.
Raspberry Pi 2 is much more powerful, while the GPU is identical.
4.3 Overclocking:
The first generation Raspberry Pi chip operated at 700 MHz by default and did not become
hot enough to need a heat sink or special cooling, unless the chip was overclocked. The
second generation runs on 900 MHz by default, and also does not become hot enough to need
a heatsink or special cooling, again overclocking may heat up the SoC more than usual.
Most Raspberry Pi chips could be overclocked to 800 MHz and some even higher to
1000 MHz. There are reports the second generation can be similarly overclocked, in extreme
cases, even to 1500 MHz (discarding all safety features and over voltage limitations). In
the Raspbian Linux distro the overclocking options on boot can be done by a software
command running "sudo raspi-config" without voiding the warranty. In those cases the Pi
automatically shuts the overclocking down in case the chip reaches 85 C (185 F), but it is
possible to overrule automatic over voltage and overclocking settings (voiding the warranty).
In that case, one can try putting an appropriately sized heatsink on it to keep the chip from
heating up far above 85 C.
Newer versions of the firmware contain the option to choose between five overclock
("turbo") presets that when turned on try to get the most performance out of the SoC without
impairing the lifetime of the Pi. This is done by monitoring the core temperature of the chip,
and the CPU load, and dynamically adjusting clock speeds and the core voltage. When the
demand is low on the CPU, or it is running too hot, the performance is throttled, but if the
CPU has much to do, and the chip's temperature is acceptable, performance is temporarily
increased, with clock speeds of up to 1 GHz, depending on the individual board, and on
which of the turbo settings is used. The five settings are:

none; 700 MHz ARM, 250 MHz core, 400 MHz SDRAM, 0 overvolt,

modest; 800 MHz ARM, 250 MHz core, 400 MHz SDRAM, 0 overvolt,

medium; 900 MHz ARM, 250 MHz core, 450 MHz SDRAM, 2 overvolt,

high; 950 MHz ARM, 250 MHz core, 450 MHz SDRAM, 6 overvolt,

turbo; 1000 MHz ARM, 500 MHz core, 600 MHz SDRAM, 6 overvolt.

14

In the highest (turbo) preset the SDRAM clock was originally 500 MHz, but this was later
changed to 600 MHz because 500 MHz sometimes causes SD card corruption.
Simultaneously in high mode the core clock speed was lowered from 450 to 250 MHz, and
in medium mode from 333 to 250 MHz.
4.4 RAM:
On the older beta model B boards, 128 MB was allocated by default to the GPU, leaving
128 MB for the CPU. On the first 256 MB release model B (and model A), three different
splits were possible. The default split was 192 MB (RAM for CPU), which should be
sufficient for standalone 1080p video decoding, or for simple 3D, but probably not for both
together. 224 MB was for Linux only, with just a 1080p framebuffer, and was likely to fail
for any video or 3D. 128 MB was for heavy 3D, possibly also with video decoding (e.g.
XBMC). Comparatively the Nokia 701 uses 128 MB for the Broadcom VideoCore IV or the
new model B with 512 MB RAM initially there were new standard memory split files
released( arm256_start.elf, arm384_start.elf, arm496_start.elf) for 256 MB, 384 MB and
496 MB CPU RAM (and 256 MB, 128 MB and 16 MB video RAM). But a week or so later
the RPF released a new version of start.elf that could read a new entry in config.txt
(gpu_mem=xx) and could dynamically assign an amount of RAM (from 16 to 256 MB in
8 MB steps) to the GPU, so the older method of memory splits became obsolete, and a single
start.elf worked the same for 256 and 512 MB Pis. The second generation has 1 GB of RAM.
4.5 Networking:
Though the model A and A+ do not have an 8P8C ("RJ45") Ethernet port, they can be
connected to a network using an external user-supplied USB Ethernet or Wi-Fi adapter. On
the model B and B+ the Ethernet port is provided by a built-in USB Ethernet adapter.
4.6 Peripherals:
Generic USB keyboards and mice are compatible with the Raspberry Pi.
4.7 Video:
The video controller is capable of standard modern TV resolutions, such as HD and Full HD,
and higher or lower monitor resolutions and older standard CRT TV resolutions; capable of
the

following:

640350 EGA;

1280720 720p HDTV;

640480 VGA;

800600 SVGA;

1280768 WXGA variant;

1024768 XGA;

1280800 WXGA variant;

12801024SXGA; 1366768 WXGA variant; 14001050 SXGA+; 16001200 UXGA;

16801050 WXGA+;

19201080 1080p HDTV;

15

19201200 WUXGA. It

can

generate 576i and 480icomposite

video

signals

for PAL-BGHID, PAL-M, PAL-

N, NTSC and NTSC-J.

4.8 Real-time clock:
The Raspberry Pi does not come with a real-time clock, which means it cannot keep track of
the time of day while it is not powered on.
As alternatives, a program running on the Pi can get the time from a network time server or
user input at boot time.
A real-time clock (such as the DS1307) with battery backup can be added (often via
the IC interface).

16

CHAPTER 5
SOFTWARE
5.1 Operating systems:
The Raspberry Pi primarily uses Linux-kernel-based operating systems.

The ARM11 chip at the heart of the Pi (pre-Pi 2) is based on version 6 of the ARM. The
current releases of several popular versions of Linux, including Ubuntu, will not run on the
ARM11. It is not possible to run Windows on the original Raspberry Pi, though the new
Raspberry Pi 2 will be able to run Windows 10. The Raspberry Pi 2 currently only
supports Ubuntu Snappy Core, Raspbian, OpenELEC and RISC OS.
The install manager for the Raspberry Pi is NOOBS. The operating systems included with
NOOBS are:

Archlinux ARM

OpenELEC

Pidora (Fedora Remix)

Puppy Linux

Raspbmc and the XBMC open source digital media center

RISC OS The operating system of the first ARM-based computer

Raspbian (recommended for Raspberry Pi 1) Maintained independently of the

Foundation, based on the ARM hard-float (armhf) Debian 7 'Wheezy' architecture port
originally

designed

for ARMv7 and

later

processors

(with Jazelle RCT/ThumbEE, VFPv3, and NEON SIMD extensions), compiled for the
more limited ARMv6 instruction set of the Raspberry Pi. A minimum size of 4 GB SD
card is required. There is a Pi Store for exchanging programs.

The Raspbian Server Edition is a stripped version with fewer software packages
bundled as compared to the usual desktop computer oriented Raspbian.

The Wayland display server protocol enable the efficient use of the GPU
for hardware accelerated GUI drawing functions. on 16 April 2014 a GUI shell for
Weston called Maynard was released.

PiBang Linux is derived from Raspbian.

Raspbian for Robots - A fork of Raspbian for robotics projects with LEGO, Grove,
and Arduino.
17

5.2 Other operating systems:

Xbian Using the Kodi (formerly XBMC) open source digital media center

openSUSE

Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix

Slackware ARM Version 13.37 and later runs on the Raspberry Pi without
modification. The 128496 MB of available memory on the Raspberry Pi is at least twice
the minimum requirement of 64 MB needed to run Slackware Linux on an ARM or i386
system. (Whereas the majority of Linux systems boot into a graphical user interface,
Slackware's default user environment is the textual shell / command line interface.)
The Fluxbox window manager running under the X Window System requires an
additional 48 MB of RAM.

FreeBSD and NetBSD

Plan 9 from Bell Labs and Inferno (in beta)

Moebius A light ARM HF distribution based on Debian. It uses Raspbian repository,

but it fits in a 128 MB SD card. It has just minimal services and its memory usage is
optimized to keep a small footprint.

OpenWrt Primarily used on embedded devices to route network traffic.

Kali Linux A Debian-derived distro designed for digital forensics and penetration
testing.

Instant WebKiosk An operating system for digital signage purposes (web and media
views)

Ark OS Website and email self-hosting

Minepion Dedicated operating system for mining cryptocurrency

Kano OS http://kano.me/downloads

Nard SDK For industrial embedded systems

Sailfish OS with Raspberry Pi 2 (due to use ARM Cortex-A7 CPU; Raspberry Pi 1 uses
different ARMv6 architecture and Sailfish requires ARMv7.)

Tiny Core Linux a minimal Linux operating system focused on providing a base system
using BusyBox and FLTK. Designed to run primarily in RAM.

IPFire a dedicated firewall/router distribution for the protection of a SOHO LAN; runs
only on a Raspberry Pi 1; porting to the Raspberry Pi 2 is not planned for now.

18

5.3 Planned operating systems:

Windows 10 Microsoft announced February 2015 it will offer a free version of the tobe-released Windows 10 running natively on the Raspberry Pi.

5.4 Driver APIs:

Raspberry Pi can use a VideoCore IV GPU via a binary blob, which is loaded into the GPU at
boot time from the SD-card, and additional software, that initially was closed source.This part
of the driver code was later released, however much of the actual driver work is done using
the closed source GPU code. Application software uses calls to closed source run-time
libraries (OpenMax, OpenGL ES orOpenVG) which in turn calls an open source driver inside
the Linux kernel, which then calls the closed source VideoCore IV GPU driver code.
The API of the kernel driver is specific for these closed libraries. Video applications
use OpenMAX, 3D applications use OpenGL ESand 2D applications use OpenVG which
both in turn use EGL. OpenMAX and EGL use the open source kernel driver in turn.
5.5 Third party application software:

Mathematica Since 21 November 2013, Raspbian includes a full installation of this

proprietary software for free. As of 1 August 2014, the version is Mathematica 10.

Minecraft Released 11 February 2013; a version for the Raspberry Pi, in which you can
modify the game world with code.

19

CHAPTER 6
BLOCK DIAGRAM OF RASPBERRY PI
6.1 Block diagram:
The Raspberry Pi board consists of following parts:
1. GPIO: General Purpose Input Output : using GPIO we can connect our board with
real world i.e. we can use it to connect sensors and buttons and can create our own
robot.
2. SD Card: The SD Card (or Secure Digital Card) is the hard disk of our system. It
contains Operating System on it.
3. RCA Video: RCA(or Radio Corporation of America) connector is typically used for
composite video. Composite video is an analog video transmission that carries
standard definition video.
4. LEDs: LEDs(or Light Emitting Diodes) are present to show that you have power on
board.
5. USB: Universal Serial Bus designed to standardize the connection of computer
peripherals (including keyboard, mouse, printers etc.) to PC both to communicate and
supply electronic power.
6. LAN: for internet connection.
7. HDMI: High Defination Multimedia Interface is used to connect your TV and your
projector to the board.

Fig 6.1 : Block diagram of Raspberry Pi

20

6.2 Block Diagram of Model A:

Fig 6.2: Block diagram of model A

6.3 Block Diagram of Model B:

Fig 6.3: Block diagram of model B

21

CHAPTER 7
MODELS OF RASPBERRY PI
The Raspberry Pi consists of following models:
1. Model A
2. Model A+
3. Model B
4. Model B+
5. Generation 2 Model B
The properties of the above models are compared below:

Table 7.1 : Properties of different models of Raspberry Pi.

22

Table 7.2 : Properties of different models of Raspberry Pi.(contd.)

23

Table 7.3 : Properties of different models of Raspberry Pi.(contd.)

24

CHAPTER 8
CONCLUSION
Raspberry Pi is an innovative product. The sheer number of users and fan base support the
fact that the device can see a great future ahead. The device can surely help anyone who
really wants to lean electronics and computers. Increasing the processing power can surely
help the product in the future. Also supplying a case and a proper instruction manual will
improve the product. Also currently Windows operating systems are not compatible because
of the ARM processor. If the processor is improved or any workaround is found to run
Windows directly on the Raspberry Pi, then it can be a great step for the Pi. The Raspberry Pi
is an amazing piece of hardware because of the combination of the features of a traditional
computer and an embedded device.
Supporting computer operating systems like Linux and providing simple input/output lines
i.e. the GPIO makes it perfect for controlling almost anything. Programming the GPIO is
much easy and intuitive then an traditional FPGA or microprocessor. Finally it can be said
that Raspberry Pi can be effectively used if its processing power is kept in mind. It can work
as a personal computer but cannot replace it.
As of January 2012, enquiries about the board in the United Kingdom have been received
from schools in both the state and private sectors, with around five times as much interest
from the latter. It is hoped that businesses will sponsor purchases for less advantaged schools.
The CEO of Premier Farnell said that the government of a country in the Middle East has
expressed interest in providing a board to every schoolgirl, in order to enhance her
employment prospects.
In 2014, the Raspberry Pi Foundation hired a number of its community members including
ex-teachers and software developers to launch a set of free learning resources for its
website. The resources are freely licensed under Creative Commons, and contributions and
collaborations are encouraged on social coding platform GitHub.
The Foundation also started a teacher training course called Pi Academy with the aim of
helping teachers prepare for teaching the new computing curriculum using the Raspberry Pi
in the classroom. The continued professional development course is provided free for
teachers and is run by the Foundation's education team.
25

CHAPTER 9
REFRENCES
1. www.seminarsonly.com//raspberry_pi
2. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi
3. www.slideshare.net//presentation _on_Raspberry_Pi
4. www.seminarprojects.com//RaspberryPi
5. www.youtube.com//Raspberry_Pi_Board_working

26