NEC serves up a slice of Pi, will start building Raspberry Pi 3s into its displays

NEC’s business-focused displays are going to have a whole new realm of functionality in the near future, as the Japanese electronics maker has announced that it will be incorporating Raspberry Pi 3s into its displays going forward. It is hoped that these displays will facilitate better connectivity with the internet of things (IOT) and will be able to offer customizable functionality to third parties.

The Raspberry Pi project was initially designed to help children learn to program and to encourage bedroom hardware hacking and experimentation. However, in its third generation, NEC sees the Pi as a very capable piece of kit and wants to include it in its future hardware. The 1.2GHz processor is powerful and NEC hopes that when combined with the micro-PC’s varied ports and feature set, the resulting pro displays will really stand out.

“Our strategic initiative to team up with Raspberry Pi is an example of how we continue to ensure that organizations in any sector have the most advanced technology in place to meet their application needs,” said senior VP of marketing at NEC, Stefanie Corinth.

Also front and center in this new development was CEO of Raspberry Pi Trading, Eben Upton, who said: “Overall, this collaboration shows NEC’s confidence with our ability to provide a platform that can be used in a variety of environments.”

The credit-card sized systems will be included in NEC displays as part of the firm’s Open Modular Intelligence platform, specifically in the professional P and V series large-format displays. These are more commonly used in meetings, or in public settings, so this could provide some exciting functionality for third parties that make use of them.

Using the Pi 3’s functionality, these displays could be connected to all sorts of services, or be given whole new functions thanks to the myriad of mods and accessories that can be applied. The main functions NEC is expecting are in cases of signage, streaming media and making presentations to large audiences, but if we have learned anything from the Pi’s evolution over the years, the projects people can create with it are never what you might expect.