Qualcomm IPQ8074 802.11ax WiFi 6 SoC was first unveiled in 2017 and designed for high-end routers, gateways, and access points supporting up 12×12 MIMO configuration (8×8 5GHz + 4×4 2.4 GHz) using Dual-Band Dual Concurrency (DBDC).
I was just informed about a Qualcomm IPQ8074 embedded board going under the names DR8074A or HK01 depending on the company promoting it, respectively Wallys Communication and Compex.
Qualcomm IPQ8074 embedded board (AP.HK01) specifications:
- SoC – Qualcomm Atheros IPQ8074A quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor
2.2GHz CPU - System Memory – 1GB (2x 512MB) DDR3L RAM (Option for up to 4GB)
- Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, 32MB NOR Flash, 256MB NAND flash, 1x micro SD Card socket
- Connectivity
- Wired
- 5x Gigabit Ethernet (1GbE) RJ45 ports
- 1x 10Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) RJ45 port
- 1x SFP+ Port
- WiFi
- On-board 4×4 2.4GHz MU-MIMO 802.11b/g/n/ax WiFi 6 up to 1147Mbps
- On-board 2x(4×4) or 8×8 5GHz MU-MIMO 802.11a/n/ac/ax WiFI 6 up to 4804Mbps
- 12x U.FL connectors
- Cellular – M.2 B-key socket with PCIe 3.0 interface for 5G Module
- Optional Bluetooth module, optional ZigBee module
- Wired
- USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports
- Display – LCD display header, touchpad connector
- Serial – 12-pin connector
- Expansion – 1x MiniPCIe slot with PCIe 2.0, 1x Audio/SLIC header,
- Debugging – 20-pin JTAG connector
- Misc – 2x hardware reset buttons, 1x WPS reset button, 1x buzzer; 13x LED indicators plus 2 additional LED on Ethernet ports
- Power Supply – 12V/5A DC via DC jack connector
- Dimensions – 200 x 160 x 18mm
The board is shipped with QCA reference firmware and Qualcomm SDKs with QCA binary drivers are available to software developers. OpenWrt Linux is also supported, but companies won’t provide any technical support for this OS.
Since several companies offer the board, I initially thought there was only one manufacturer with others reselling the board under their names, but I’ve now come to understand it’s a reference design from Qualcomm, which explains why multiple companies “designed” the same board.
With that in mind, it should be considered a development platform with low-volume production which explains the high prices of $1,850 on Techsip10 pr €1,590 ex. VAT on Codico. However, since the processor has been around for a while, there are already several routers based on IPQ8074 as listed on DeviWiki, notably ASUS AX RT-AX89X.
More details can be found on the product page on Compex website. I received all information about Wallys DR8074A board over LinkedIn chat, but the board should eventually show up on the company’s website. [Update: the product page is up]
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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At the moment there is no “WLAN Router with Modem” with OpenWrt-Software, is there a reason why?
Most likely because a lot of the modem makers, be it xDSL or Cable modem, keep their software under very strict NDAs. If it’s also all binary blobs, it would be very hard to reverse engineer.
If there was a market for it I guess you would have the modem and the host speak over some sort of industry standard protocol like that MHI thing that just landed in Linux.
actually there is the home hub 5 (alias hh5a version) and other lantiq SOC devices that run openwrt for the dsl modem also