Raspberry Pi Has Gone To Manufacturing 374
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the bake-until-golden-brown dept.
from the bake-until-golden-brown dept.
alecclews writes "After weeks of waiting, the Raspberry Pi foundation, who are creating a $25 computer to bootstrap computing education, has flipped the switch on manufacturing. They had wanted to build the board in the UK but it turns out to be uneconomic."
Re:Worrying state of affairs (Score:5, Informative)
And then the taxing part is plain and simply dumb. You can't control corporations, but that the government actively deters local production? That's like shooting yourself in the foot and wondering why it hurts.
The UK and the West as a whole (I'm entirely sure that the UK is not a special case here) should be ashamed.
For those too lazy to RTFA, UK is shooting in the foot using a big cannon then crying big of unemployment [guardian.co.uk]:
I’d like to draw attention to one cost in particular that really created problems for us in Britain. Simply put, if we build the Raspberry Pi in Britain, we have to pay a lot more tax. If a British company imports components, it has to pay tax on those (and most components are not made in the UK). If, however, a completed device is made abroad and imported into the UK – with all of those components soldered onto it – it does not attract any import duty at all.
Re:Not vapourware! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Worrying state of affairs (Score:4, Informative)
I'm and engineer and have worked with various CM's in the US and Asia and I have to say you have things exactly backwards. Western manufacturers have given up on the low end since they can not compete with Asia on cost. They focus on the more profitable high end boards and/or doing very quick turns in small and medium numbers. First, lead times are long because factories are already at capacity with more profitable work. Secondly prices are high because you are competing with higher end boards with more profit margin. Why sell you time when they can make twice the profit selling it to someone else? For the places that quote lower prices they are using you to fill dead space between other boards. The volume is low because they only have so much expected down time. Making larger quantities would delay their more profitable business.
Re:Not vapourware! (Score:5, Informative)
but can you run any supported version of Windows with 150Mhz CPU, 32MB of RAM and 8MB of Flash? (even ignoring the fact that it has no display)
Aside from Windows CE or Mobile (which I don't think is what the OP was asking for), I think Windows XP embedded has the lowest system requirements of any supported version of Windows, and its got the same base requirements as XP Pro:
Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended)
At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device
Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution
Re:but it turns out that communism is awesome (Score:2, Informative)
the us has the highest number of prisoners per capita in the world. go capitalism?
Re:Not vapourware! (Score:2, Informative)
I believe the word you're looking for is "thee".
As in : "I dub thee...unread".
Wrong information about all these assumptions. (Score:1, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi
To clear a few things up..
Model " A " = 25GBP - Model " B " = 35GBP
MdelB is ARM11, not 6, ModelB is the one you want to be able to get your hands on.
Raspberry-Pi Foundation IS the charity, it didn't donate all the money from the auctions to a charity, they are the charity themselves.
All the money earnt from the auctions which people wilfully gave up thousands of pounds for one of the first batch boards is all going to producing the 10K batch their after.
If you follow the site and read the forums instead of just assuming, then you would see people have already gotten their hands on both models, and there are already several distributions of linux running off them, and even XBMC.
There is proof that these boards are going into production, just read the site instead of assuming.
Re:Not vapourware! (Score:4, Informative)
"The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity (Registration Number 1129409)"
- http://www.raspberrypi.org/sample-page
Re:Why can't they make it in UK ? (Score:4, Informative)
Not economical?
They explain this at the end of the article. One of the major factors is that there tax reductions for importing manufactured systems but not for components!!! Write to your MP today.
Re:Can't wait to buy one of these... (Score:2, Informative)
It's not VAT. VAT, as you point out is just a percentage of the price (so importing assembled goods you'd pay more VAT).
It's Customs duty:
Customs duty is a tax charged on importation of goods produced outside the European Union (EU). [...]
Customs Duty is charged as a percentage of the total value of the goods - that is the sterling equivalent of the price paid abroad.
To work out the percentage, each type of product is given a 'commodity code'. This tells you what the Customs Duty rate percentage is for that particular product, based on whether it's being imported or exported.
There are around 14,000 different classifications. The duty rate percentage for each may vary according to the country the goods come from. The average percentage is between 5 and 9 per cent, but it can be as low as 0 per cent or as high as 85 per cent.
To find out the Customs Duty rate for a product you can contact HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) VAT Helpline or the Customs, International Trade & Excise enquiries.
The UK customs duty appears to be based on the EU TARIC, so the choice of rates on particular goods may not be up to the UK (alone) to decide.
The TARIC database is online at http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/dds2/taric/taric_consultation.jsp?Lang=en# [europa.eu]
An assembled Rasberry Pi is probaly an "8471":
SECTION XVI MACHINERY AND MECHANICAL APPLIANCES; ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT; PARTS THEREOF; SOUND RECORDERS AND REPRODUCERS, TELEVISION IMAGE AND SOUND RECORDERS AND REPRODUCERS, AND PARTS AND ACCESSORIES OF SUCH ARTICLES
CHAPTER 84 NUCLEAR REACTORS, BOILERS, MACHINERY AND MECHANICAL APPLIANCES; PARTS THEREOF
8471 Automatic data-processing machines and units thereof; magnetic or optical readers, machines for transcribing data onto data media in coded form and machines for processing such data, not elsewhere specified or included
I'm not sure where components are - it's a real mish-mash.
Re:Worrying state of affairs (Score:4, Informative)
Import duty != VAT.
When you import something from outside the EU you pay both import duty and VAT (and VAT on the customs duty, and usually a handling charge to the carrier who cleared the package through customs). If you are a VAT registered buisness you claim the import VAT back and charge VAT on what you sell. Import duty however can't be claimed back under most circumstances (IIRC there are a few situations arround re-export where you can but I don't know the details).
Import duty varies depending on both the type of goods in question and country of origin with a huge number of confusing codes for different types of goods. Thankfully i've never imported enough stuff myself to have to deal with it.