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The credit card sized computer board is designed to seed a new generation of programmers. The company has begun shipping the device to the first group of customers from around the world, all of whom registered for a Raspberry Pi from RS Components.

Invitations to place an order on the new RS Components Raspberry Pi online store have been sent out to customers on a first-come, first-served basis in line with registrations of interest placed on the company's website and depending on the number of boards available in the first production run.

This process will be repeated once the next batch of boards becomes available. RS Components has implemented this procedure to ensure that all orders for Raspberry Pi are fulfilled with a confirmed delivery date. Due to the exceedingly high demand for the product, and limited quantities available from the manufacturer at this time, orders are currently restricted to one board per customer.

When ordering Raspberry Pi from the dedicated online store, customers can save on shipping charges by adding associated parts and accessories required for activation of the board. These include USB A-B cables, HDMI cables, power supplies and SD memory cards from a range of leading suppliers, all available to purchase from stock.

Lim Cheng Mong, Head of Electronics Marketing for Asia Pacific at RS Components said: "There has been a huge wave of anticipation and an extraordinary level of demand for Raspberry Pi since it was launched, so we are delighted to be delivering the first boards to initial customers. We are working very closely with the manufacturer to bring subsequent batches of boards into stock so that we can fulfil every customer order for Raspberry Pi as quickly as possible."

"The Raspberry Pi, together with the RS Components DesignSpark community and our free PCB design software, will enable engineers of the future to create revolutionary products throughout their academic and professional careers, ensuring Singapore's continued competitive edge on a global stage."

RS Components is developing a variety of tools and initiatives to support Raspberry Pi users and the company's DesignSpark electronics design community is seeing many people discussing ideas and thoughts on Raspberry Pi. Recent additions to the site include a series of Pi Perspectives, where academics and scientists share their views on Raspberry Pi, and information on a Raspberry Pi experimenter's kit now being developed. Various tutorials covering everything from initial set-up to a guide to the different Linux flavours, including a Fedora Mix start-up guide, are also available.

For developers, there is the free schematic capture and PCB layout tool from RS Components, DesignSpark PCB. It has already won awards from across the globe, and the company is seeing more developers adopt it with some already creating prototyping boards to use with Raspberry Pi.

Customers that have not yet registered for a Raspberry Pi from RS Components can do so by visiting the company's website. The Raspberry Pi boards are priced at £21.60 plus a shipping charge of £4.95 to any destination worldwide, plus VAT and import duty as applicable.

The Raspberry Pi board was created by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a charity based in Cambridge, UK, and was conceived to encourage and enable children to learn and apply computer programming.

About RS Components

RS Components and Allied Electronics are the trading brands of Electrocomponents plc, the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products. Through operations in 32 countries and 17 warehouses, the Group serves 1.6 million customers worldwide and distributes 550,000 products ranging from semiconductors and optoelectronics to power tools and protective clothing. The product and service portfolio supports the entire product lifecycle from R&D through pre-production to maintenance and repair. The Group ships more than 46,000 parcels on the same day the orders are received.

Electrocomponents is listed on the London Stock Exchange and in the last financial year to 31 March 2011 had revenues of £1.18bn.



For more information, please visit the website at https://australia.rs-online.com/web/.



Editorial Contacts:



RS Components

Tan Soo Chun

Public Relations Manager - Asia Pacific

Tel: +65 6391 5745

Email: soochun.tan@rs-components.com



PR Deadlines, for RS Components

David Frost

CEO

Tel: +61.2.4341 5021

Email: davidf@prdeadlines.com.au

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