D-Link Launches EXO Series With AC1900 Router

[Julio Urquidi]

Introduced earlier this year at CES, the D-Link DIR-879 is a dual band AC1900 Wi-Fi router, and the first router to be released from D-Link’s budget-minded EXO series of products.

The DIR-879 has four GbE ports for LAN, and one GbE for the WAN connection. Note that there are no USB ports in this model, so no storage or printer sharing.

The DIR-879 supports maximum link rates of 1300 Mbps in 5 GHz and 600 Mbps in 2.4 GHz. Features include Smart Connect band steering, Intelligent QoS for traffic optimization, and Easy Setup for quick installation via D-Link’s Quick Router Setup (QRS) mobile app.

The D-Link DIR-879 is shipping now, listing for $149.99.

 

[pete y testing]

so no storage or printer sharing.

now i dont see that as an issue these days as ppl use wireless printers and NAS

listing for $149.99.

and i think the price point is quite good

will be interesting to see how it performs throughput wise when compare to the other 1900ac class routers

 

[microchip]

What kind of chipset does it use? Any info on that?

 

[pete y testing]

What kind of chipset does it use? Any info on that?

cant find much yet , will ask my dlink contact and get back to you

 

[TheLostSwede]

Weren't the previous models in this series Realtek based? So there's a chance that so is this.

 

[sfx2000]

It's D-Link, and with the past security issues in their board support package, it's likely a pass and move on...

 

[thiggins]

What kind of chipset does it use? Any info on that?

https://fccid.io/KA2IR879A1
Realtek based

 

[pete y testing]

Realtek based

where does it sy that , i must be going blind

nvm i see it internal photos

 

[thiggins]

where does it sy that , i must be going blind

Look at the images.

 

[pete y testing]

Look at the images.

gotcha

bit of a shame but how else are they going to make it cheaper , how it works is a different matter

 

[sfx2000]

I'm pulling down the RealTek OpenWRT SDK, so should know more in a bit...

First glance though - very cost efficient design;

- SoC (RTL8198) is a combo CPU/Switch/Ethernet PHY 5 port (possibly 7 if WiFI is RGMII), combo Flash/DRAM (16bit path to RAM?)

- assuming combo as we only see the ESMT chip, which might be flash, but no separate package for DRAM - hence combo flash (common in handsets, FWIW). Wonder if the flash is NAND or NOR, NOR based might be interesting, as one can execute in place for NOR, which reduces size demands for RAM...

- we see the magnetics on the WAN/LAN ports direct to the SoC, again, suggesting that the PHY's, as well as switch are in the package

- pretty power efficient, as it's a Quad Flat pack in plastic, no Flip Chip Ball Grid Array parts like we've seen with MRVL, BRCM, QCA for AC1900 class designs

- radios look interesting - the 2.4G is a 3T/4R (RTL8814) from appearances (4 LNA, 3 PA), the 5G is a 4T/4T (RTL8194), and assuming AC1900 class, the radios are 3 spatial streams with TurboQAM on the 2.4G to get the numbers up to AC1900... looking at the cans on the back side of the board, the chips appear to be clocked quite high - 28nm CMOS perhaps?

(comment, might be a decent RF performer perhaps...)

Cool thing to note - I don't follow RealTek too much, but this is the first I've seen with radios having baseband and RF in the same package (same die?).

More in a bit...

 

[sfx2000]

- SoC (RTL8198) is a combo CPU/Switch/Ethernet PHY 5 port (possibly 7 if WiFI is RGMII), combo Flash/DRAM (16bit path to RAM?)

- assuming combo as we only see the ESMT chip, which might be flash, but no separate package for DRAM - hence combo flash (common in handsets, FWIW). Wonder if the flash is NAND or NOR, NOR based might be interesting, as one can execute in place for NOR, which reduces size demands for RAM...

64MB RAM, 8MB SPI flash is what it looks like - the flash part is below the SoC, to the left of the DRAM part in this photo...

Also note the direct path from SoC to the Magnetics - Switch/Phys are onboard the SoC - tight integration!

 

[sfx2000]

So here's the RF complex - 2.4G on one side - and this again, it's a 3T/4R configuration - can see this by the 4 RF switchers, and the 3 PA's...

The 5G side is also an asymmetric config, which is typical for Realtek, and not bad

- puts more emphasis on the receive from client stations, and one can still do 3 spatial streams for good SU performance...

The MAC/BB chips are connected to the SoC via RGMII, as noted by the traces - which makes sense, as the SoC has 7 ports (eth0-6), 1 WAN, 4 LAN, and the remaining two for WiFi...

 

[sfx2000]

bit of a shame but how else are they going to make it cheaper , how it works is a different matter

So that's how you make it cheap - no waste at all here, very very tight engineering on the HW side - I've been seeing more and more of this come out of China these days...

This is an ODM design for D-Link, my best guess at the moment, probably Cameo, as they've partnered in the past with DLink for other products... don't know for certain, but they've been a strong partner for Design/manf for D-Link as well as white label for others - and they're firmly within the RealTek camp...

 

[sfx2000]

I'm pulling down the RealTek OpenWRT SDK, so should know more in a bit...

First glance though - very cost efficient design;

- SoC (RTL8198) is a combo CPU/Switch/Ethernet PHY 5 port (possibly 7 if WiFI is RGMII), combo Flash/DRAM (16bit path to RAM?)

- assuming combo as we only see the ESMT chip, which might be flash, but no separate package for DRAM - hence combo flash (common in handsets, FWIW). Wonder if the flash is NAND or NOR, NOR based might be interesting, as one can execute in place for NOR, which reduces size demands for RAM...

Ok - digging thru the toolchain - it's MIPS32 (R1074Kc) - my guess is clocked around 600-700MHz, as that's all that is needed, and looking at the package, nothing more than 700MHz without heat being a problem with the package...

The chip itself has 2x PCIe 2.0, but again, looking at the traces, these aren't used, nor is the USB endpoints to the outside world... which again, confirms all connectivity is MII/RGMII...

For DRAM - the ESMT part can be either 32 or 16 bit, hard to tell by the silkscreen and pic resolution, but I'm thinking this is a 32-bit part, so a 32-bit path back to the SoC, which looking at the traces, suggests it is - which bodes well, as all switching is soft/virtual so memory performance here is critical..

And have been able to confirm that yes, this is an 8MB flash part...

RealTek has always been good about low-cost bills of material, and this is an exceptional example of that philosophy...

 

[sfx2000]

Ok - digging thru the toolchain - it's MIPS32 (R1074Kc) - my guess is clocked around 600-700MHz, as that's all that is needed, and looking at the package, nothing more than 700MHz without heat being a problem with the package...

1GHz is the clock speed, confirmed...

 

[pete y testing]

1GHz is the clock speed, confirmed...

pretty dam well spec'd for a cheap router wonder what the street price is going to be

 

[sfx2000]

pretty dam well spec'd for a cheap router wonder what the street price is going to be

$149USD...

 

[pete y testing]

$149USD...

so i expect just over $200 AUD which really isnt that cheap as the netgear r7000 is $225 AUD and the rt-ac68u is $229 AUD and the tp link archer C9 is $179 AUD

 

[sfx2000]

It'll be interesting to see how a 1GHz MIPS32 processor compares to 1GHz ARMv7 - and since there is an OpenWRT SDK for the chipset available from Realtek, might be a decent open device...