Introduction to Raspberry Pi
In this section, we will be introducing you to Raspberry Pi, which is a completely functional computer built on a single circuit board:
![](https://static.packt-cdn.com/products/9781788399449/graphics/5fcaedd6-46e1-49f9-a751-ae637258e552.jpg)
Figure 28: A Raspberry Pi, Model 3B; source: www.wikipedia.com
Equivalent to the size of a credit card, this single board computer offers the following:
- 1GB RAM
- 4 USB ports
- 40 GPIO pins
- A full HDMI port
- An Ethernet port
- Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video
- A Camera interface (CSI)
- A Display interface (DSI)
- A micro SD card slot
- A VideoCore IV 3D graphics core
- A 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU
- An 802.11n Wireless LAN
- Bluetooth 4.1
- Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
![](https://static.packt-cdn.com/products/9781788399449/graphics/4320b275-e8f0-4642-8eaa-3cb500300713.png)
Figure 29: Raspberry Pi, Model 3b, layout details; source: www.smarthomesage.com
For less than 40 euros (which is the approximate cost of this board), for starters, you can simply connect a USB 2.0 mouse and keyboard to the USB ports, hook up a monitor via the HDMI port, and you already have the hardware setup of a personal computer:
![](https://static.packt-cdn.com/products/9781788399449/graphics/dcb6a619-be32-4685-8353-5043c1dc9f50.png)
Figure 30: Raspberry Pi, Model 3b, Specifications...