Cheapest Computer in World Created by David Braben – Only $25

Cheapest Computer in World Created by David Braben – Only $25 / £15 Cost.

You might not be able to play games like Final Fantasy 2011 PC Game on it, but a new product from the British nonprofit Raspberry Pi Foundation aims to put a working computer into children’s hands for the ultra-low cost of $25 per device. That’s a fraction of the cost of computing devices offered by the oft-cited One Laptop Per Child project.

For average consumers, don’t expect this computer to look anything like what you’re used to seeing on your desk, in your lap, or stuffed in your messenger bag. The Rasberry Pi Foundation’s computer, created by game developer David Braben of Rollercoaster Tycoon fame, is little more than a hunk of silicon with some ports attached.

But it’s certainly a computer. In fact, the 700-MHz ARM11 processor slapped on to the tiny piece of silicon, roughly the size of a USB stick, is a faster chip than what was originally found in Apple’s iPhone 3G—just to put it into perspective.

A total of 128 megabytes of SDRAM joins the processor, allowing the super-tiny system to run a variety of Linux versions. The video signal is outputted by a tiny, unidentified GPU, but hooking up a device to the HDMI port attached to one end of the USB-key-sized computer allows one to display scenes rendered by OpenGL ES 2.0 up to a 1080P resolution.

To work the system, all one needs to do it plug a USB-based keyboard and mouse setup into the USB 2.0 port on the opposite end of the Pocket PC’s HDMI port. Additional storage comes in the form of an SD card slot on the side of the tiny computer. And that’s it: $25 for a fully functional Linux PC that fits in one’s pocket.

“In theory, they could be given away to the child, with other ways of funding it,” said Braben in a YouTube interview. “What they would do with it is they would be able to engage in a lot of things that we’re all consumers of but not actually creators of: Understanding how you put together little scripts that might run websites, that might look at things like Facebook and Twitter, also email.”

Braben expects to have the devices for sale within a year’s time.