Raspberry Pi Foundation confirms 1 million milestone in UK

The one millionth Raspberry Pi has been manufactured in the UK, as the micro-computing marvel's run of success shows no signs of stopping.

Originally made in China, the Raspberry Pi Foundation moved production of the 29 device to Sony's plant in Pencoed, Wales in 2012.

"We've reached a bit of a landmarkThe really big news today is that the Pencoed factory has made its millionth British Raspberry Pi," the Foundation said in a blog post.

"Add these to the existing Chinese ones, and that makes one and three quarter million Raspberry Pis out there worldwide, the majority of them made right here at home."

For those wondering what happened to the the millionth British Raspberry Pi, it's housed in a gold-plated case at the Foundation's headquarters.

Since its introduction in 2011, the Pi has been selling like hot cakes, particularly amongst the enthusiast community. But it also looks on course to deliver on its main goal of getting children involved in programming from an early age.

With the help of tech firms the Raspberry Pi has been introduced to children through a number of initiates.

Google teamed up with OCT to provide 15,000 Raspberry Pis to schoolchildren around the UK. PA Consulting also hosted its first ever Raspberry Pi Competition - which aimed to give schoolkids the chance to come up with real-world uses for the micro-computer.

The Pi's open source nature means it's also been harnessed for a number of bespoke enterprise projects. Most recently, the University of Glasgow used 56 Pis and Lego to build a Linux-based system that gives researchers and students complete access to a working cloud computing infrastructure. This was done for the price of 4,000 - a fraction of the cost of its commercial equivalent.

Raspberry Pi Founder Eben Upton previously told IT Pro there are plans to introduce a sequel in 2015 but he expects the current model to continue shipping until 2020.