Wallys Communications has unveiled the DR5424, an embedded router board built around Qualcomm's IPQ5424 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor from the Dragonwing NPro A7 Platform. The board delivers tri-band Wi-Fi 7 connectivity with combined throughput approaching 22 Gbps, paired with serious wired networking capabilities including two 10GbE RJ45 ports and four 2.5GbE RJ45 ports.
Based on Qualcomm's AP.MI01.2 reference design, the DR5424 packs 4GB or 8GB of DDR4 memory, 256MB NAND flash, and 32MB NOR flash. The wireless subsystem features 4x4 MU-MIMO across all three bands: 2.4GHz (up to 1,376 Mbps), 5GHz (up to 8,647 Mbps with 240 MHz channels), and 6GHz (up to 11,530 Mbps with 320 MHz channels). The board includes USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, JTAG and serial debug interfaces, an optional Zigbee module header, and a SLIC interface for VoIP applications. Measuring 21.5 x 18 x 2.9 cm (8.5 x 7.1 x 1.1 inches) with heatsink attached, the board operates from -15°C to 70°C (5°F to 158°F) and draws up to 39.3 watts.
Compex offers the same reference design as the AP.MR02.1, featuring a different cooling solution with three separate heatsinks. Both implementations support OpenWrt 24.10 firmware, and the IPQ5424 SoC is compatible with open source platforms including RDK, TiP OpenWiFi, prplOS, and OpenSync. Mainline Linux support for the IPQ5424 began with Linux 6.13, with the APSS clock controller added in Linux 6.18.
Wallys has not disclosed pricing for the DR5424, though quotes are available through their product page. The Compex variant lists at $600 (€550) on their website, though availability appears limited.
