Raspberry Pi is the popular, low-cost single-board computer that defined the category — used for learning, hobby projects, home servers, and edge devices.1
Overview
The range runs from the tiny Pi Zero 2 W through the Pi 4 and Pi 5 to the Compute Module for embedding in custom hardware. A Raspberry Pi runs Raspberry Pi OS (a Linux distribution) and is programmed in ordinary languages such as Python, C, and Go. A HAT is an add-on board that stacks onto its GPIO header to add hardware.
Where it fits
For most projects the Pi is the default choice: cheap, well documented, and broadly supported. A Raspberry Pi by the antenna can run GopherTrunk as a small, low-power SDR capture node. When you need GPU compute at the edge, the NVIDIA Jetson is an alternative; when you need stronger real-time I/O, look at the BeagleBone.
Sources
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Raspberry Pi — Wikipedia, on the models and uses of the Raspberry Pi. ↩