This could, if previous suggestions are anything to go on, see an Android “environment” being introduced. This is in addition to Google planning to bring artificial intelligence to the Pi family.
Since 2015, the Pi has been the best-selling British computer and Upton claims that, in terms of general purpose computing platforms, it is second only to the PC and Mac. Competition has emerged, though.
Asus recently launched a £55 Raspberry Pi rival dubbed the Tinker Board. The device is the same 3.4-inch x 2.1-inch size as the Pi 3 but also supports 4K video through its HDMI 2.0 port. In the intervening years since the Pi’s launch, the BBC has revived the micro:bit.
Officials at the broadcasting corporation have delivered much-delayed one million pocket-sized computers, for free, to school children around the UK. It has also launched the micro bit foundation to deliver the devices to other areas of the world.
Yet, Upton says he doesn’t see these as a problem. He says the emergence of other small computing devices is “validation this is something worth doing”.
As well as the focus on software, there is also going to be an attempt to “double down” on the Foundation’s charitable work – which is its main aim. The trading arm of the Raspberry Pi Foundation sells the devices.
“One of the nice things about having scale now is that we can start to do some big data work,” Upton continues. To this end, the CBE says he wants to bring more coding classes to schools in the UK and then in Europe, the US, and developing nations.
In 2015, the Raspberry Pi foundation merged with Code Club, which runs after school lessons that teach children how to code. Exposing as many children to coding is the best way to increase diversity across engineering, Upton says.
“There’s the tendency to think this stuff is just a middle-class thing, it’s probably what you do between kiddie yoga and horse-riding but it actually really isn’t.
“Engineering is a wonderful tool for social mobility,” Upton says. “Engineering doesn’t care who your Dad is. Maybe your Dad can get you a nice job in some field and then you can muddle through. But engineering doesn’t care: bridges stand-up or they fall down.”
