Python Programming for Raspberry Pi, Sams Teach Yourself in 24 Hours

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By the Way: Raspberry Pi Already Up and Running?

If you are currently a Pi owner and have your Raspberry Pi up and running, you can

skip the rest of this hour.

Acquiring a Raspberry Pi

Before you purchase a Pi, you need to understand a few things:

What you get when you buy a Raspberry Pi

The different Pi models available

Where you can buy a Raspberry Pi

What peripherals you’ll need

When you buy a Raspberry Pi, you get an exposed circuit board about the size of your palm, with a
system on a chip (SoC), memory, and ports. Figure 1.2 shows a Raspberry Pi Model B diagram
depicting what you receive. It does not come with an internal storage device, a keyboard, or any
peripherals—so you will want to acquire a few peripherals to get your Pi up and running.

FIGURE 1.2 Diagram of the Raspberry Pi Model B.

Did You Know: What Is a SoC?

A system on a chip (SoC) is a single microchip or integrated circuit (IC) that contains

all the components needed for a system. SoCs are typically found on cell phones and

embedded devices. For the Raspberry Pi, the SoC contains both an ARM processor for

application processing and a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) for video processing.