Amlogic S905W4 TV Box ships with Amlogic W1 WiFi 5 module

As I just posted about MediaTek Filogic 830/630 WiFi 6/6E chip, I was informed that Amlogic may have its own WiFi chip as “W1” module showed up in the SDK’s source code. It turns out there’s at least one TV box with Amlogic W1 802.11b/g/n/ac module/chip?, namely X96 Mini+, that also happens to come with an Amlogic S905W4 quad-core Cortex-A53 processor we’ve never covered on CNX Software.

Apart from the new processor and WiFI module, X96 Mini Plus is your typical entry-level 4K TV box with up to 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, HDMI 2.0 video output, composite video output, Ethernet, and a couple of USB ports.

X96 Mini Plus specifications:

• SoC – Amlogic S905W4 quad-core Arm Cortex A53 @ 1.2GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750MHz
• System Memory – 1 or 2GB DDR3
• Storage – 8GB or 16GB eMMC flash, microSD card slot
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4Kp60, AV port with composite video (NTSC/PAL)
• Audio – Optical S/PDIF, analog stereo audio via AV port, digital audio via HDMI port
• Video decoding
  • VP9 Profile-2 up to 4Kx2K @ 30fps
  • H.265 HEVC MP-10 @ L5.1 up to 4Kx2K @ 30fps
  • H.264 AVC HP @ L5.1 up to 4Kx2K @ 30fps
  • H.264 MVC up to 1080p60
  • MPEG-4 ASP @ L5 up to 1080p60
  • WMV/VC-1 SP/MP/AP up to 1080p60, RealVideo 8/9/10 up to 1080p60
  • AVS-P16(AVS+) /AVS-P2 JiZhun Profile up to 1080p60
  • MPEG1 MP/HL and MPEG2 MP/HL up to 1080p60
• Networking
  • 10/100M Ethernet
  • Dual-band 802.11n/g/n/ac WiFi 5 via Amlogic W1
• USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports
• Power Supply – 5V/2A
• Dimensions – 105 x 105 x 20mm

The TV box ships with an HDMI cable, an IR remote control, a power adapter, and a user manual by default. Amlogic S905W4 supports Android 9.0 OS with OTA firmware upgrade. It has none of the new features brought about by Amlogic S905X4 like AV1 and Android 11, which also happen to be supported in Amlogic S905W2 (which we missed). That means Amlogic S905W4 appears to be a cost-down version of Amlogic S905W with the same limitation to 4Kp30 video playback, and older Mali-450 GPU, but a lower CPU frequency of 1.2 GHz instead of 1.5 GHz (sometimes wrongly advertised as 2.0 GHz).

It’s unclear whether Amlogic W1 is just a module, or also a chip designed by Amlogic, but it appears limited to WiFi, meaning there’s no Bluetooth [Update: maybe there’s is. See W155S1 section below]. The description on Banggood says the WiFi 5 module supports 20 and 40 MHz bandwidth, but we don’t have much other information at this time. All I know is that we should expect Amlogic W1 WiFi solution in more and more Amlogic based designs. Hopefully, they’ve done a better job than the Allwinner XR819 WiFi chip that caused quite a lot of headaches to early users a few years ago.

X96 Mini+ is sold in two configurations with the 1GB/8GB model going for $36.99, and the 2GB/16GB variant selling for $43.99 on Banggood.

Amlogic W155S1 chip in Xiaomi TV Stick

This section is an update after I was informed (See comments section) that Xiaomi Mi TV incorporates the Amlogic W155S1 WiFi 5 & Bluetooth 5.2 chip.

Amlogic W155S1 specifications:

• Low-power RISC-V processor
• 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac protocol, 1T1R, 2.4GHz/5GHz dual-frequency, VHT 20M/40M/80M high bandwidth, PHY rate up to 433Mbps
• Bluetooth 5.2, supports classic BR/EDR audio and BLE dual-mode, multi-device connection, LE Long Range
• Host interfaces – WiFI: SDIO 3.0 ; Bluetooth: UART and PCM
• Integrated PMU/LNA/PA/TR switch with low power consumption, long distance, high bandwidth
• Manufacturing process – 22nm
• Certifications – Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi-Fi 5 certification and Bluetooth Technology Alliance’s BQB Bluetooth 5.2 certification

It’s not 100% sure W1 and W155S1 are the main but it appears likely.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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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