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→Capabilities of the Raspberry Pi
* '''The processor on the Pi is a 700 MHz ARM processor.''' This is not really fast compared to a modern PC, but still offers plenty of power for many purposes. Since this is an ARM processor, it will not directly run Microsoft Windows.
* '''Storage is provided by SD cards''' (the same cards used in most digital cameras). These are inexpensive, have high capacity, and are durable (your students can accidentally leave them in their jean pockets and they'll still work after the laundry is done). Students can have multiple SD cards configured with different software and swap between them.
* '''The Pi runs Linux.''' This means that the software is free and fully modifiable. Tens of thousands of programs are available, ranging from productivity applications (image editing, word processing, spreadsheets) to computer computer programming languages (Python, Perl, C/C++, PHP, Lua, BASIC, and many others), from servers (web, ftp) to science and technology tools (experiment logging, machine vision, voice synthesizerssynthesis). A basic "image" is downloaded and copied to the SD card, and then the Pi's user can add and remove software to customize the system as they see fit. Alternately, an image can be customized by a teacher and then copied for use student computers.
* '''The Pi has a high-definition video output (HDMI)''' that can also be used with most computer monitors, at resolutions up to the 1080p (Blu-ray quality). '''It also has a standard video connector''' for use with older televisions. The system has 3D graphics capabilities and high-definition video decoding.
* '''At this time, regular 2D graphics do not use the 3D accelerator built into the Pi'''. Therefore, the regular graphical user interface is somewhat slow. The 2D graphics will be hooked up to the 3D accelerator at some point in the future.
