Electronic, electrical, mechanical and industrial products distributor RS Com-ponents is one of two key distributors of the innovative Raspberry Pi mini computer, which its hopes will be used increasingly in the education environment.

The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized computer that can plug into a television and a keyboard; it offers easy learning for would-be programmers and scientists and can be used for many different applications. It also uses little electricity and does not require costly proprietary software.

The Raspberry Pi requires a secure digital (SD) card with an operating system (OS).

RS Components South Africa emerging markets GM Brian Andrew notes that this miniature ARM-based computer can be used for many of the things that a normal desktop computer is used, such as spreadsheets, word-processing and games.

The Raspberry PI can also facilitate the playing of high-definition videos.

“The capabilities of Raspberry Pi are endless and continue to increase. It can be used in various environments, such as for security purposes, to track wild life, for educational purposes and much more.

It is small, easy to set up, easy to use, has an exceptionally easy programming capability and is spectacularly cheap, considering it is a small computer,” he says.

The mini computer was developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation to help increase the year-on-year decreasing number of university students interested in the computer programming field and to get youth interested from an early age.

Andrew says children worldwide have started using the Raspberry Pi and have developed their own programmes, projects and games.

Since the Model B board was introduced, a Model A board has also been made available, along with many accessories, which include SD cards with the OS preloaded, an extension board, a camera module and an infrared camera module.