Carambola3: Succession to the Throne Settled
Successor for the Most Successful Wi-Fi SOM
By far the most successful Wi-Fi SOM (System on Module) from 8DEVICES is called Carambola2 and is still very successful on the market after more than 10 years. However, many customers have asked themselves whether there will be a successor that has more to offer in terms of performance. Now the time has finally come and 8DEVICES announces the market launch of Carambola3.
SAMPLESEasy Integration of Carambola3
Carambola3 is also a Wi-Fi4 SOM and is very similar to its predecessor Carambola2 in that it is pin-to-pin compatible, meaning it has the same physical dimensions and pinouts. This allows easy integration of Carambola3 into existing systems already using the Carambola2 module without having to go through a HW redesign.
Since Carambola3 is based on QUALCOMM's newer QCA4531 device (Carambola2 is based on the AR9331 @ 400MHz), a higher CPU clock of 650MHz is available, which enables 60% more processing power. Together with the expansion of the Flash memory from 16MB to 32MB and the DDR2 RAM memory from 64MB@200MHz to 128MB@300MHz, it is now possible to integrate more memory-intensive and complex applications that were previously not sufficiently supported on the Carambola2. In addition, up to 64 clients can now be operated in access point mode instead of just 32. Fortunately, the QCA4531 is based on the same MIPS 24K processor architecture as the AR9331, so the expenditure for a SW port under OpenWRT from Carambola2 to 3 is very low.
Like Carambola2, Carambola3 offers RED, FCC and IC certification and is also offered in two temperature variants. A feature list and a comparison of the two modules can be found in the table below.
However, Carambola2 has some advantages over Carambola3. It supports the audio/VoIP interfaces I2S, SPDIF, SLIC, in addition to SPI and UART and consumes only 0.5W compared to 2W for Carambola3. For audio/VoIP and low power IoT applications, Carambola2 will therefore stay without alternative and will remain in the product portfolio of 8DEVICES.
Feature List
Your Contact Person
For more information, please contact André Ehlert.
