You can now get customized, mass-produced versions of the Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi microcomputer which was designed as a cheap educational tool to use coding skills on a board and build tech projects. The existing models of the Raspberry Pi are all very capable and flexible tiny computers, with a range of connections allowing them to be customized to suit your needs.
Company and startups can now get customized, mass-produced versions of the Pi boards.
Raspberry Pi and Element14 have signed a global exclusive agreement whereby Element14 will provide “design and manufacturing services to OEM customers to create bespoke designs based upon the Raspberry Pi technology platform,” the companies jointly announced in London.
“We are delighted to announce the appointment of element14 as our strategic partner for the design and manufacture of customer Raspberry Pi-derived hardware,” said Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi Trading.
Element 14 is one of the main manufacturing and distribution partners with which Raspberry Pi trading has worked to produce the Pi boards.
The Pi Foundation is now offering customers the option to order customized hardware. the customization option is not for the single users, you will need to place a large order. Order quantities will start in the region of between 3,000 and 5,000 depending on how many changes user want to the current Pi system.
Users will be able to reconfigure the board layout, add or remove interfaces, headers or connectors and even change the configuration.
Applications for new, customized versions of the Pi are expected to include Internet of Things (IoT) devices, as well as energy management systems, industrial equipment, and consumer gadgets.
“This exclusive partnership extends element14’s world class end-to-end design to manufacturing services to OEM customers, giving them the flexibility to customize any Raspberry Pi board in order to optimize it for a particular design,” stated Claire Doyle, Global Head of RaspberryPi at element14.
Earlier in 2015, LinuxGizmos.com showed that the RaspberryPi enjoys massive adoption and popularity amid Linux hackers and hardware developers. In the 2015 Hacker Single Board Computer Survey, the latest RaspberryPi 2 Model B came out on top.
