The Raspberry Pi made a big, fruity splash when it arrived back in 2011, as a cheap method for teaching computer mechanics and as a very small form factor system for modders and hackers to play around with. Now though, we have a new iteration out in the wild, known as “Model A.” It's cheaper and consumes less energy.

Available now for sale in Europe, the Model A is a stripped back version of the original and comes with no ethernet port, half the ram of the original Model B at 256MB and only one USB port. However, this allows it to use around a third of the power of the original and it makes it about £6 cheaper.

The new price for the new unit is $25 (£16), making this even more accessible. However the power usage reduction was a big focus, as this should make it much easier for people wanting to run projects using the Raspberry Pi from battery or solar power. Examples given includes robots, sensor platforms and WiFi repeaters. The Raspberry Pi foundation also said that it's working on software improvements to get the power consumption even lower.

Unfortunately for our pals across the pobd, this version of the Pi will only be available in Europe. However, that's just for the first batch run, so expect an expansion of the Model A to worldwide operation soon enough.

KitGuru Says: It's great to see continued development with this little platform. It has a lot of potential for not only teaching young people the basics of computer mechanics, but its size and low power requirements have the potential to allow for pretty interesting developments.

Become a Patron!