Cherry: New System On Module for Compact Wi-Fi6 AP’s and Gateways
The “Little Brother” of Mango
Cherry is the name of the new Wi-Fi6 SOM (System on Module) from 8DEVICES and can be seen as the "little brother" of Mango. It is in fact a much more slimmed-down variant, in which the developers have set themselves the ambitious goal of achieving a particularly small module form factor in order to satisfy the growing demand for compact Wi-Fi6 APs and gateways in IoT applications.
SAMPLES SUPPORTThe Realisation of a Particularly Small Module Design
Cherry is based on QUALCOMM's new IPQ-5000 SoC, which features only two Cortex-A53 CPUs instead of four compared to the IPQ-60xx family Mango is based on. The clock rate has also been reduced from 1.8GHz to 1GHz in this device version. In return, IPQ-5000 has an integrated 256MB DDR3L memory, as well as an integrated 1GE PHY, which allows the realisation of a particularly small module design. With a dimension of only 30.5x19.4mm, Cherry takes up just ¼ of the area of Mango. Of course, with such a small design, the customer has to make some compromises. For example, the Wi-Fi6 radio functions are limited to the 2.4GEz band, but at least it supports 2x2 MU-MIMO, 1024QAM (2SS) with HT20/HT40 with a maximum antenna data rate of 573Mbps. Via the dual lane PCIe 2.0 interface, the module can be easily upgraded to 5GHz and/or 6GEz bands with appropriate radio chips (e.g. QCN-9074, QCN9072 from QUALCOMM) or radio modules (e.g. Pineapple from 8DEVICES). Two U.FL connectors are integrated for connecting two antennas.
Just like Mango, the customer has to use an external NAND memory for his application code, which is connected to Cherry via QSPI NAND interface. Cherry can be expanded to 2.5GE via an external PHY using the SGMII interface, allowing parallel operation of 1GE and 2.5GE.
Cherry is limited to commercial temperature range of 0°C to +65°C, i.e. no industrial variant will follow. This is due to the fact that, unlike the IPQ6010, the IPQ-5000 is only offered by QUALCOMM in the commercial temperature class. By default, 8DEVICES will certify Cherry for USA, Canada and Europe. Samples and DVKs could be ordered now in our Sample Shop.
FEATURE LIST
Your Contact Person
For more information, please contact André Ehlert.
