Tiny computer launched at $33 - Sky News Australia

Updated: 08:16, Tuesday March 6, 2012

A mini computer that aims to get a new generation of children programming and writing software has been launched in the UK - with intial interest crashing the manufacturer's website.

Called the Raspberry Pi and costing just STG22 ($A33), the machine has been created by a research team of volunteers in the UK.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK charity that claims it wants to encourage school children to learn programming skills and write software.

Sir Clive Sinclair's ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64 and the BBC Micro machines made computing accessible to children in the 80s and sparked a wave of young bedroom software developers.

The Raspberry team have said the aim was to make 'a BBC Micro for the 21st century'.

Sold without a keyboard or mouse and uncased, the motherboard is the size of a credit card, with developers saying the final package will be the size of a pack of playing cards.

'It has been six years in the making; the number of things that had to go right for this to happen is enormous. I couldn't be more pleased,' said Eben Upton of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

The makers hope their machine will kick-start a new generation of computer programmers

The STG22 model of the Pi has been launched, with initial interest crashing the manufacturer's site.

Raspberry team of developers have said a cheaper STG16 version will go on sale later in the year competing with similar stripped-down computers on the market.

The low cost and size of the units was made possible by using technology found in smartphones.

Mobile phone chips or Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) are relatively inexpensive and powerful enough for word processing, gaming, video playback and internet browsing.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation had originally hoped to produce the devices in the UK but found they could not do that and keep the costs low, so they are manufactured in China.