What is the Raspberry Pi?
The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, credit-card sized computer. The official Operating System for Raspberry Pi is called Raspbian OS, which supports most of the programming languages. More familiar operating systems can be Emteria OS (Android 7.1.2) and Windows 10 loT Core.
Why Raspberry Pi?
The Raspberry Pi is first developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation to promote the teaching of basic computer science in schools and in developing countries. The HDMI port allows to you plug it into a computer monitor or TV, and with USB ports you can use a standard keyboard and mouse. You can expect the little device to do everything that a desktop computer can do. Moreover, the Raspberry Pi has the ability to interact with hardware & electronics components through GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) pins.
What projects can I work on using Raspberry Pi?
There are tons of projects can be achieved using Raspberry Pi. There are plenty of resources and Youtube videos you can follow. I strongly encourage you to explore yourself. A cool custom home project is called “Raspberry Pi Smart Mirror”. The mirror can display the time, weather, etc with a Raspberry Pi hide behind the mirror. Raspberry Pi has also been widely applied on drones and automation cars. There are many types of research groups applying Raspberry Pi on their projects if you want to explore more about Raspberry Pi.
Which model should I choose?
The newest model that has been released is “Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+”. Comparing to the previous Model B, the newer model offers substantial system improvements with the same price ($35). For instance, the Gigabit Ethernet boost (over USB) is nearly three times faster than the previous 100-MB speed. The new processor provides improved heat control and power management. The Bluetooth has been upgraded from 4.1 to 4.2, which supports Local Area Networks at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz along with Bluetooth Low Energy. The GPIO header is extended to 40-pin.
Generally speaking, experience about Raspberry Pi can provide you with fun and valuable learning experience besides you can definitely put your projects on the resume and impress your recruiters. I hope you all can have fun with Raspberry Pi!