THE INDEPENDENT GAMES DEVELOPER ASSOCIATION (TIGA) has announced that the Raspberry Pi Foundation will become an honorary member, giving it access to many games developers.

As the Raspberry Pi Foundation is busy filling orders and overclocking its diminutive computer, there has been growing interest in using the device to build a games console. One developer already turned a Raspberry Pi into a Super Nintendo and now the Raspberry Pi Foundation has been given an honorary TIGA membership.

A very quick set of photos taken this morning at the Sony factory in Pencoed, Wales, where Raspberry Pis are being built at a rate of around 2500 a day.

Deal with Sony overcomes time and cost issues to shift manufacturing away from China

“There was just no way to make the Raspberry Pi in the UK and keep the price at $25 for the Model A (which will be released before the end of the year at the promised price) and $35 for the Model B,” wrote Liz Upton of the Raspberry Pi Foundation in a blog announcing the UK manufacturing news on Thursday.

To build in the UK, the charity would have been taxed on importing the components, which it had to source from overseas. However, importing a built item attracts no import duty.

One of the Raspberry Pi operation’s suppliers, Premier Farnell, has now shifted the bulk of its manufacturing to South Wales, creating around 30 new jobs to supply 30,000 boards per month up to an initial order of 300,000. This should be a great selling point for Farnell, and I hope that buyers will consider this when choosing where to buy one of the coveted Raspberry Pi computers.

The Raspberry Pi is to be manufactured in the UK – possibly the first time a microcomputer has been produced here, as opposed to simply being assembled, for a number of decades.

Production has begun in Sony’s Pencoed, South Wales plant on behalf of the Raspberry Pi’s sales partner, Element14/Premier Farnell.

RS, Raspberry Pi’s other supplier, will continue to source hardware in China.

Sony has “already invested £50,000 in PoP – Package on Package, the fiddly stuff where the Broadcom chip at the heart of the Raspberry Pi is stacked beneath the Ram chip – hardware and expansion capability just for us”, said the Raspberry Pi Foundation today.

If you weren’t quick enough to snap up a Raspberry Pi before they sold out then here are five pocket-sized computing devices worth checking out while you wait to get your Pi.

Some people will go to any lengths to get a Raspberry PI, except pay the $35 price tag.

It’s policy for the Foundation, a non-profit, not to dish out free devices.

Born in the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, Raspberry Pi has taken the tech world by storm. Since its release earlier this year, this $35 credit card-sized Linux computer has been in short supply, leaving makers waiting for weeks (sometimes even months) for their orders to be fulfilled. Besides the price, what is it about the Raspberry Pi that tests the patience of a board-hungry group of hackers?

As the founder of Linux, Linus Torvalds, said in an interview with BBC News, Raspberry Pi makes it possible to “afford failure.”

Not only that, but makers, tinkerers, and hackers have also latched onto the platform because of its price and capabilities. And with the enormous Linux community available for support, the pains of working with a new platform have been minimal.

THE MAN BEHIND the Raspberry Pi has been awarded a gong by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology because he is under 35 and rather good at what he does.

What he has done is give the world the sub-£25 Rasberry Pi PC, a small piece of hardware that has impressed all who see it.

Upton is 34 years old, and has ignited a nascent market according to MIT, that of young people and computers.

“Eben Upton thought a new generation of youngsters might never develop valuable hardware and software hacking skills unless they had access to cheap, hobbyist-friendly computers. So he set out to build one himself. The resulting tiny box, which sells for just $25, has been a big hit,”

“It was intended for kids, but hackers of all ages wanted it, and so did budding computer scientists in poor countries. Almost the instant the Raspberry Pi went on sale, orders crashed the websites of its two vendors, RS Components and Premier Farnell. The companies reported that they were taking in orders fast enough to tear through the entire initial stock of 10,000 computers in minutes.”