Raspberry Pi suffers production glitch, slightly delayed
updated 05:20 am EST, Fri March 9, 2012
Raspberry Pi suffers ethernet port issue
Raspberry Pi has announced that its $25 Linux-based microPC for home theatre buffs has been delayed due to a manufacturing glitch. The foundation reports that its manufacturer sourced incorrect Ethernet jacks without integrated magnetics as had been specified. Instead, non-magnetic jacks were soldered meaning that the micro-PCs will not connect to a network.
Raspberry Pi says the problem is relatively minor and easy to fix. The first set of boards are said to be nearly ready to ship following the desoldering of the incorrect jack and the resoldering of the replacement. However, there may be delays with subsequent batches as additional magnetic jacks need to be sourced. The foundation says that it is going through the process of negotiating, ordering and getting delivery of the new components as quickly as they can.
There are two different versions of the microPC (which can plug straight into an HDMI port) to choose from. A $35 Model know as the ‘A’ variant is built around a 700MHz ARM11 processor with 256MB of RAM. It includes HDMI and RCA video outputs and even includes SD card storage. It can play 1080p video while the Linux OS, GUI and standard apps are embedded on an SDHC card slotted into the motherboard. It can even be controlled by a mouse and keyboard connected to its USB port.
The $35 ‘B’ variant gives users two USB ports and as well as the Ethernet port in question for the extra $10. It is the first of the two models to ship, although Raspberry Pi have confirmed that production of the Model A has already started and will continue despite the issues facing the B version.
