The future of computers is only $4 away, with Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton

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Abstraction: Raspberry Pi origins, philosophy, chip design, and semiconductor shortage impact

Key points:

Raspberry Pi was founded to increase CS applicants to Cambridge University (from ~200 back toward 600); grew to 7 million units/year by 2021 despite the chip shortage limiting growth
Eben Upton's philosophy: general-purpose computers (vs locked-down appliances) are necessary to "beguile" people into becoming programmers, as the Commodore 64 once did
Raspberry Pi designed its own RP2040 microcontroller chip to vertically integrate and justify software investment; chip design requires ~5-10 distinct specialist roles and cost roughly $5M
The 2021-2022 semiconductor shortage left JPMC with several million units of backorder; Raspberry Pi went from "buy from stock tomorrow" to 3-4 month lead times
The Foundation returns surplus profit to fund STEM teacher training (runs the UK's National Centre for Computing Education) and leverages it to attract multi-year philanthropic grants

Connections: Raspberry Pi · Eben Upton · Open Hardware · Stem Education · Semiconductor Supply Chain