Posted on - 7 Comments on Intel Launches WiFi 6 AX200 M.2 Wireless Card

Intel Launches WiFi 6 AX200 M.2 Wireless Card

Intel AX200 WiFi 6 M.2 Card

WiFi 6 (aka 802.11ax) can deliver up to 10 Gbps in theory, and provides better handling of high density scenario in train stations, conferences, etc… We’ve seen it implemented in some routers and smartphones, but most laptops don’t support the new WiFi standard, so in order to solve this little issue, Intel has now launched AX200 M.2 WiFi 6 card in the M.2 2230 and M.2 1216 form-factors. Intel AX200 works in the 2.4GHz band up to 574 Mbps, and in the 5.0 GHz band up to 2.4 Gbps. The “Cyclone Peak” card works with both USB and PCIe signals, support 2×2 MU-MIMO, and also supports Bluetooth 5.0. Drivers are/will be available for Windows 10 64-bit, Google Chrome OS, and Linux via the “IWLWIFI” driver. Pricing for the cards is said to be $10 and $17, but I could not find it listed anywhere just yet. A few more details may be found in Intel Ark. Via Phoronix and TechGenYZ …

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Posted on - 5 Comments on TP-Link Archer 802.11ax WiFi 6 Routers Sell for $350 and Up

TP-Link Archer 802.11ax WiFi 6 Routers Sell for $350 and Up

TP-Link Archer AX6000 WiFi 6 Router

After NETGEAR and ASUS 802.11.ax WiFi routers introduction earlier this year, TP-Link has now launched their own WiFi 6 routers with Archer AX6000 and Archer AX11000 models. The latter will only be available at the end of January 2019, and full details have not been disclosed yet, but Archer AX6000 has already launched (pre-orders only) and specifications, pricing, and other details are known. TP-Link Archer AX6000 specifications: SoC – Broadcom BCM49408 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ up to 1.8 GHz with network packet co-processor WiFi co-processors – 2x Broadcom BCM43684 802.11ax radios System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 128MB Flash Networking Wired 8x 1000/100/10Mbps LAN Ports 1x 2500/2000/1000/100Mbps WAN Port WiFi IEEE 802.11ax/ac/n/a 5GHz up to 4804Mbps IEEE 802.11ax/n/b/g 2.4GHz up to 1148 Mbps Wireless Functions – Enable/Disable Wireless Radio, Guest network, DFS, MU-MIMIO, OFDMA Wireless security – 64/128-bit WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK encryptions 8x High-Performance External Antennas USB – 1x Type A USB 3.0 Port, 1x Type-C USB …

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Posted on - 3 Comments on Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Specifications Published

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Specifications Published

Snapdragon 855

Qualcomm Tech Summit 2018 started yesterday, and while the company mentioned Snapdragon 855, they focused on the benefit of 5G technology. Today is another day, and this time the company released details specifications about the new 5G mobile platform. Snapdragon 855 specifications: CPU – 8x Qualcomm Kryo 485 64-bit cores @ up to 2.84 GHz; 7nm Process Technology; based on leaks, tri-cluster configuration: 1+3+4 Visual Subsystem Adreno 640 GPU OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 FP, Vulkan 1.1 API support HDR gaming Hardware-accelerated H.265 and VP9 decoder.  HDR Playback Codec support for HDR10+, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision Volumetric VR video playback 8K 360 VR video playback Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine Qualcomm Hexagon 690 Processor Qualcomm Hexagon Vector Accelerator Qualcomm Hexagon Tensor Accelerator Qualcomm Hexagon Voice Assistant Qualcomm All-Ways Aware Hub Qualcomm Adreno 640 GPU Qualcomm Kryo 485 CPU System Memory – 4×16-bit, LPDDR4x, up to 16GB @ 2133 MHz Display Maximum On-Device Display Support: Up to 4K HDR Maximum External …

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Posted on - 1 Comment on The First 802.11ax WiFI 6 Routers are Now Shipping for $350 and Up

The First 802.11ax WiFI 6 Routers are Now Shipping for $350 and Up

Netgear RAX80 WiFi 6 Router

802.11ax WiFi, to be known as WiFi 6 for consumer, promises a much higher throughput up to 10 Gbps, and a better ability to manage high density scenario (i.e.). crowded places where may users connect at the same time. ASUS announced several 802.11ax routers at CES 2018, and the entry-level model – ASUS RT-AX88U – with a combined maximum throughput of 6000 Mbps (referred to as AX6000) is now sold on Amazon for $349.99. NETGEAR has also unveiled their own WiFi 6 routers with respectively Nighthawk AX80 (RAX80) and Nighthawk AX120 (RAX120) routers. I’ve already covered ASUS routers in a previous post, and the 12-stream RAX120 will only become available in Q1 2019, so I’ll focus on the spaceship looking 8-stream RAX80 router since it’s available now. RAX80 WiFi 6 router specifications: SoC –  Broadcom BCM49408 quad core Cortex-A53 processor @  1.8GHz with network packet co-processor @ 800 MHz WiFi Connectivity 2x Broadcom BCM43684 4×4 802.11ax chipsets 802.11ax Dual Band …

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Posted on - 5 Comments on Linux 4.19 Release – Main Changes, Arm and MIPS Architectures

Linux 4.19 Release – Main Changes, Arm and MIPS Architectures

Linux 4.19 Changelog

With Linus Torvalds taking a leave from the Linux kernel project, Greg Kroah-Hartman was the one to release Linux 4.19 last Sunday: Hi everyone! It’s been a long strange journey for this kernel release… While it was not the largest kernel release every by number of commits, it was larger than the last 3 releases, which is a non-trivial thing to do. After the original -rc1 bumps, things settled down on the code side and it looks like stuff came nicely together to make a solid kernel for everyone to use for a while. And given that this is going to be one of the “Long Term” kernels I end up maintaining for a few years, that’s good news for everyone. A small trickle of good bugfixes came in this week, showing that waiting an extra week was a wise choice. However odds are that linux-next is just bursting so the next -rc1 merge window is going to be bigger …

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Posted on - 5 Comments on Qualcomm QCA64x8 and QCA64x1 802.11ay WiFi Chipsets Deliver 10 Gbps Bandwidth

Qualcomm QCA64x8 and QCA64x1 802.11ay WiFi Chipsets Deliver 10 Gbps Bandwidth

802.11ay, 802.11ad

WiFi has evolved in recent years with the introduction of 802.11ad and 802.11ax (now called WiFi 6). THe latter is now official, and in the last year several 802.11ax chipsets and WiFi 6 routers have been announced, but I’ve not heard much about 802.11ad with claims of up to 7Gbps bandwidth at 60 GHz when unveiled in 2016. The latter have been supplanted by 802.11ay, with Qualcomm having just unveiled QCA64x8 and QCA64x1 802.11ay chipsets capable of delivering 10Gbps and operating at a frequency of 60 GHz. According to Wikipedia, 802.11ay is not really a new standard, but just an evolution of 802.11ad  adding four times the bandwidth and up to 4 MIMO streams. Qualcomm chipsets will enable 10+ Gps speeds with wire-equivalent latency, while keeping the power consumption low, and bring the ability to play 4K UltraHD videos over WiFi, virtual / augmented reality games, fixed wireless mesh backhaul, and other applications requiring high bandwidth and/or low-latency. The table …

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Posted on - 16 Comments on New WiFi Naming Scheme: 802.11n Becomes WiFi 4, 802.11ac WiFi 5, 802.11ax WiFi 6

New WiFi Naming Scheme: 802.11n Becomes WiFi 4, 802.11ac WiFi 5, 802.11ax WiFi 6

WiFi 6 Icon

Terminology used by engineers may be confusing for end-users, so for example in the TV market 720p becomes “HD Ready”, 1080p “Full HD”, and 4K may be referred to “Ultra HD”. A few years ago, I tried to buy a 1080p TV, and the seller was really confused at first saying they only had “HD Ready” or “Full HD” televisions. Two terms I had personally never heard of myself, but eventually we managed to understand each other… Up to now the official IEEE name for different WiFi standards like 802.11n, 802.11ac, or the new 802.11ax may have been a little confusing to consumers. So the WiFi alliance has decided to launch a new scheme naming scheme. We’ll soon have to refer to 802.11n routers as WiFi 4 routers, AC routers as WiFi 5 routers, and it will probably be less confusing for 802.11ax routers since I expect them to be sold as WiFi 6 routers once they become more broadly …

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Posted on - No Comments on Qualcomm IPQ8078 based H3C WA6628 802.11ax WiFi Enterprise Router Supports up to 1000 Concurrent Clients

Qualcomm IPQ8078 based H3C WA6628 802.11ax WiFi Enterprise Router Supports up to 1000 Concurrent Clients

H3C 802.11ax Router

802.11ax WiFi aims to deliver aggregate throughput up to 10 Gbps, and better manage use cases with many users providing with up to 4 times average throughput per user compared to 802.11ac. We’ve already seen some ASUS 802.11ax routers, but if you ever have to organize an event with hundreds or thousands of users, or setup WiFi in crowded places like airports or train stations, Qualcomm IPQ8078 (datasheet) powered H3C WA6628 802.11ax enterprise router could be an interesting as the company claims its 12 stream channels can serve data to up to 1000 client devices simultaneously. The WA6628 routers comes with a 10G Ethernet port, built-in Bluetooth, and is said to improve wireless network transmission rates by at least three times compared to 802.11ac Wave 2 access points. Some of highlights of Qualcomm IPQ8078 SoC / WA6628 router include: 8×8 MU-MIMO doubles the number of devices which can be concurrently served versus Wi-Fi 802.11ac OFDMA enables the network to more …

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