One of the biggest innovations in recent years has been the Raspberry Pi platform. This $30 Linux-based computer, about the size of a credit card, is targeted at educating the next generation of software and hardware engineers in programming. Recognising its potential, we teamed up with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to launch a competition (now closed to new entrants) that challenged schoolchildren, students and programmers to use a Raspberry Pi to make the world a better place.
Meanwhile, to evaluate what the platform was capable of, our wireless experts at our Global Innovation and Technology Centre got hold of a Raspberry Pi to see if we could implement a mobile phone base-station that could run our own private mobile-phone network.
Overcoming some seriously complex obstacles along the way, we successfully managed to route voice and SMS traffic through the computer – as well as implement the GSM mobile phone standard. If you are developing your entry into the competition and are looking for inspiration – or are just interested in what can be done with this exciting new technology – please watch our video.
We shrank a 30ft base-station into a three-inch Raspberry Pi by:
The Raspberry Pi was used to set up three pieces of software:
To find out more about using off-the-shelf technologies in new product designs, please contact us now.