Now that Raspberry Pi passed all certifications and a few boards are out in the wild, the Raspberry Pi foundation has released the schematics of model B, bringing the Raspberry Pi board closer to becoming an open hardware platform like Texas Instruments Beaglebone or Beagleboard.
The Raspberry Pi schematics are available in PDF format, which is a good start and would also people to use the expansion headers (e.g. P1 provides access to GPIOs, SPI, I2C and UART interfaces) and create modules more easily.
For the Raspberry Pi to come an open hardware platform, the schematics in .sbk format (so that they can be modified if needed), Bill of materials, Gerber files and PCB layout files (they laid out the board with Mentor Graphics Expedition) would have to be released, something which apparently they plan to do at a later stage. Once they do, it will be interesting to see if clones come up. My take is that it’s unlikely since they would most probably have to be more expensive.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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“Once they do, it will be interesting to see if clones come up. My take is that it’s unlikely since they would most probably have to be more expensive.”
I guess you’re referring to the special price Broadcom has given to the Raspi Foundation for the chipset?
If that deal is transferrable to RS and Farnell (I hope it is), I guess it’s also transferrable to others. Oh wait, maybe a requirement for the transfer of the deal is that the Raspi Foundation assigns you as an official Raspi-licensee. That would block the block for unofficial clones.
But still, I would say it’s a sign of success if a lot of clones of the Raspi are sold.
@ Sander
Yes, you’re right, I’m referring to the special price for Broadcom BCM2835 and all the sourcing work they have done to find cheaper prices for all components. The other thing is that the cloners would also have to accept low margin, so there might be little monetary incentive to make a clone.
On the other hand, RS and Farnell are doing it, so they must still be able make some money out of it. In any case, the R-Pi was a marketing boon for those 2 companies, so others might want to follow this path, and launch extra cheap hardware.