MediaTek has introduced two new WiFi 7 chipsets, the Filogic 860 and Filogic 360, targeting mainstream routers and client devices. The Filogic 860 features a tri-core Arm Cortex-A73 SoC designed for up to BE7200 routers and gateways, while the Filogic 360 is a WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 chip designed for smartphones, PCs, laptops, set-top boxes, and OTT streaming boxes, offering up to 2.9 Gbps bandwidth.

The Filogic 860 and Filogic 360 chipsets provide more cost-effective alternatives to the previously introduced Filogic 880 SoC for up to BE36000 routers and Filogic 380 clients chip, which can achieve up to 6.5 Gbps PHY data rate.

MediaTek Filogic 860 Specifications:

• CPU – 3x Arm Cortex-A73 cores clocked at up to 1.8 GHz
• Network Processing Unit (NPU) – Hardware QoS acceleration and Tunneling Offload Engine for VLAN / PPTP / L2TP / GRE
• Networking Crypto engine (EIP-197) – For IPv4 NATP / IPv6 / DS-Lite / 6RD acceleration
• Memory I/F – DDR3, DDR4
• Storage I/F – SPI-NOR, SPI-NAND, eMMC, SD
• Networking
  • Wi-Fi 7 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
    • Up to 7.2 Gbps (BE7200) PHY performance
    • Tri-band support – 2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz
    • Key Features – BW40 (2.4Ghz), BW160 (5/6GHz), 4096-QAM, MLO, MRU, and AFC
    • Antenna – 4×4 (2.4GHz) + 5×5 (5/6GHz); Filogic Xtra range to boost receiving distance using an extra antenna
  • Ethernet
    • 1x 10GbE (USXGMII)
    • 1x 2.5GbE PHY
    • 4x 1GbE interfaces
• USB – 2x USB 3.2 up to 5 Gbps each
• PCIe – PCIe 3.0 up to 10 Gbps
• Other I/Os – UART, SPI, PWM, GPIO and OTP

The Filogic 860 is expected to be used in WiFi 7 enterprise access points, service provider Ethernet gateways, mesh nodes, retail routers, and IoT router applications. Although software support details are not provided, MediaTek is likely to offer support for Linux-based distributions such as OpenWrt and/or Debian.

MediaTek Filogic 360 Specifications:

• Wi-Fi
  • Wi-Fi 7 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
  • Tri-band – 2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz
  • Antenna – 2×2 triple-band
  • Max Throughput – Up to 2.9Gbps
  • Wi-Fi 7 Features – Up to 160MHz BW, 4096-QAM, Hybrid MLO (eMLSR), MRU
• Bluetooth Dual 5.4, LE Audio
• MediaTek Bluetooth and Wi-Fi coexistence technology
• Single chip with RF, Baseband, MAC, iFEM
• Host interface – PCI Express 2.1 or USB 3.0

The MediaTek Filogic 860 and Filogic 360 WiFi 7 chipsets are currently available for sampling to customers, with mass production scheduled for mid-2024. Therefore, routers, gateways, and client devices utilizing these new chips are expected to hit the market in the second half of 2024. More information can be found on the respective product pages and in the press release.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.

Radxa has introduced the Radxa Zero 3W single-board computer (SBC), which features a 1.6 GHz Rockchip RK3566 processor and up to 8GB of RAM. The board is designed in the compact Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W form factor, making it one of the most powerful Arm Linux SBCs in this size.

The Radxa Zero 3W comes with various features, including an optional eMMC flash with up to 64GB capacity, a microSD card slot, a micro HDMI port, two USB Type-C ports, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 wireless connectivity, a MIPI CSI camera connector, and a 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header.

Here are the specifications of the Radxa Zero 3W:

• SoC: Rockchip RK3566 with a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor clocked at 1.6 GHz, Arm Mali G52-2EE GPU, 0.8 TOPS AI accelerator, and 4Kp60 video decoding capabilities
• System Memory: 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB LPDDR4
• Storage: Optional 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB eMMC 5.1 flash, and a microSD card slot
• Video Output: Micro HDMI port up to 1080p60
• Camera: MIPI CSI connector compatible with Raspberry Pi Camera V1.3 and Raspberry Pi Camera V2
• Wireless: WiFi 4 (802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth 5.0
• USB: 1x USB 3.0 Type-C host port and 1x USB 2.0 Type-C OTG port
• Expansion: 40-pin GPIO header with multiple interfaces
• Power Supply: 5V/1A (minimum) via USB-C OTG port
• Dimensions: 65 x 30mm

Radxa provides Debian and Ubuntu OS images, as well as a hardware access/control library for Linux. To get started, users will need a 5V power supply, a microSD card, and necessary peripherals like an HDMI monitor or TV, USB keyboard and mouse, and potentially a USB to serial debug board and a MIPI CSI camera.

Despite having a similar form factor to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, the Radxa Zero 3W has some connector differences, such as micro HDMI instead of mini HDMI, and a different placement of the MIPI CSI connector and microSD card slot.

Performance-wise, the Radxa Zero 3W with the Rockchip RK3566 processor has been found to be significantly faster than the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W in benchmarks. The RK3566 processor has been in the market for several years, and benchmark results are available.

The Radxa Zero 3W is listed on AllNet China, starting at $15 for the model with 1GB RAM and no eMMC flash or GPIO headers. The price goes up to $66 for the variant with 8GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and female GPIO headers soldered to the board. However, all variants are currently sold out, and it is unclear when there will be stock available.

In addition to the Radxa Zero 3W, Radxa is also working on a wider Zero 2 Pro board with a 2.2 GHz Amlogic A311D processor, which will offer even more performance and require a proper cooling solution with a heatsink and a small fan.

Source: CNX Software – Embedded Systems News.