The Raspberry Pi Revolution
In February 2012, the successful Raspberry Pi was released, taking the industry by storm with a new form factor, often referred to as a single board computer (SBC). Made in Britain from a combination of cell phone and desktop parts, the Pi is barely larger than a credit card, for $35. The Pi was intended to get kids programming after the Raspberry
Pi Foundation recognised a national decrease in programming skills, but it became more popular with hobby builders and the embedded computing industry.
Unfortunately for PC giants, the Pi ran Linux on an ARM CPU instead of Windows on x86. Due to its popularity, Microsoft ported Windows to the system a few years later, and manufacturers started producing rival machines. For the ARM crowd, there are products like the Asus Tinker Boards or Pine 64’s RockPro64. For the x86 crowd, there are products like the Atomic Pi and the LattePanda series. ARM boards are generally cheaper and more efficient, while x86 boards can often run regular builds of Windows or Linux.