Hello Linux Geeksters. As you may know, Alan Bell, an Ubuntu enthusiast and third party developers has created a Indiegogo campaign, in order to raise £2.500 in 50 days, for creating “A Raspberry Pi Build Cluster for Ubuntu”.
The main idea is to create a Raspberry Pi compatible Ubuntu system, a cluster built of Raspberry Pi single board computers, capable of compiling and running Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander and Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin.
Why does Alan need £2500?
There will be 32 nodes, and each nodes needs a Pi (£25), a 32GB SD card (£20), a power supply (£6), networking (£8), power cabling and shelving (£11), meaning about £70 spent per node. 70£ x 32 nodes = £2240. The rest of the money will be used for building a home made rack for the Pis and eventually, buy more SD cards.
If you like this initiative, support the campaign. A presentation video of the “A Raspberry Pi Build Cluster for Ubuntu” project is availble above.
For those who don’t know, Raspberry Pi is a mini-computer with the size of a credit-card, having a 700 Mhz ARM CPU, 512 MB of RAM, USB ports, Ethernet port, HDMI port for pluging TVs or monitors, and supports SD cards up to 32 GB. Used with a keyboard, mouse and plugged in at a TV, this small ARM device turns into a modest computer, good for daily basic tasks.