Gallery: Raspberry Pi's Secret: 'Sell Out a Little to Sell a Lot'
01raspberry-pi
*The result of a project seven years in the making. But how did the Raspberry Pi team get here? Photo: sotechdesign*
02raspberry-pi-made-in-the-uk
*Here's a six-pack of Pis just before final test in their new manufacturing digs: Pencoed, Wales. The first Raspberry Pis could not be made in the U.K. because the low price point meant margins and volumes were way too low for most contract manufacturers.* Photo: Sony UK Technology Centre
03raspi-005-0.jpg
*Raspberry Pi Foundation co-founder and engineer Pete Lomas' scribbles. He's trying to figure out how to get the power supply to the application processor chip connected on the minimum number of layers; they wanted a "ring main" for each power supply to get the lowest voltage drop across the chip. Even though it was supposed to be a bare-bones computer, the Pi had to be sufficiently powerful and fully functional to enable hacking and education.* Photo: Raspberry Pi
04raspberry-pi-top-mid-bot-view
*The challenge in creating a full-featured design but still keeping things low-budget was bringing out 253 connections in an area much smaller than the size of a dime. The team ended up making human-hair sized holes \[green circles 1:2\] that go through only the first couple of layers, saving just enough space on the other layers for wiring up the other PCB components. This also allows critical decoupling parts to be mounted on the opposite side of the board under the processor \[purple squares\].* Photo: Raspberry Pi
05raspberry-pi-x-ray-view
*X-ray view of the BCM2835 applications processor chip: this shows all the inner layers of the printed circuit board. The components are mounted under the processor \[dark rectangles\]. There are also two rows of BGA balls around the edges \[outer two rows\]. The 0.65mm pitch balls connect the chip to the PCB and the 0.5mm pitch balls are the connections to the package-on-package memory that sits on top of the chip.* Photo: Norcott Technologies
06rack-up-the-raspberry-pis
*How do you go from 0 to 1 million units (projected) in the first year of the Raspberry Pi? It's one thing to have an idea, and another to have a design, and still another to engineer it for mass manufacturing. Here are Pis built in a panel of six -- it's all geared toward manufacturing 3,000 Raspberry Pis a day. The panel provides a a way for the machines to hold the PCBs and minimizes handling; the boards can simply be snapped out of the panel just before test. Photo: Raspberry Pi*
07sony-uk-technology-centre
*The Raspberry Pi will now help create 30 new manufacturing jobs in the U.K.* Photo: Sony UK Technology Centre
