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Hartlepool tech firm’s subsidiary named sole Raspberry Pi 3 power supplier

Hartlepool-headquartered technology company Stadium Group has announced that its subsidiary, Stontronics, has been named as the sole manufacturer of the officially approved Raspberry Pi 3 power supply - a revelation in the tech world at present, with the potential capacity to replace the desktop computer.

Stadium Group, which specialises in Wireless, Power and Human Machine Interface solutions, acquired Stontronics, a UK-based manufacturer and distributor of power supply units, transformers and adaptors, for £6.5m last year.

Stontronics is the only approved external power supply manufacturer for the new Raspberry Pi 3, a credit-card-sized single-board computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which was launched on 29 February 2016.

The new power supply has been specifically designed for the launch of the third-generation Raspberry Pi board, as it requires more power to support the new Broadcom processor chipset that powers the Raspberry Pi 3.

Stontronics has designed the new power supply to meet the updated and expanded US Department of Energy (DoE) Level VI Energy Efficiency requirements, which became effective last month. The new DoE standard mandates more stringent energy efficiency levels for a greater number of external power supply types.

According to DoE estimates, these new requirements will save consumers up to $3.8 billion and cut emissions by nearly 47 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide over 30 years, which is equivalent to the annual electricity use of 6.5 million homes.

Charlie Peppiatt (pictured above), Chief Executive Officer of Stadium, commented: “The Raspberry Pi Foundation chose Stadium as the only approved manufacturer of the power supply because of Stontronics’ expertise in semi-custom design and ability to handle all required third-party approvals to deliver a fully approved Raspberry Pi branded product.”

Gordon Hollingworth, Director of Engineering at the Raspberry Pi Foundation, added: “In addition to the company’s experience and strong credentials as a power supply vendor and designer, Stontronics also had existing relationships with RS Components and Farnell. This is an important aspect, as both companies are key to the Raspberry Pi distribution strategy and are on the strictly-limited list of official distributors of the Raspberry Pi platform.”