NETGEAR Joins the AC1900 Club

[Razor512]

They are advertising it as a dual core 1GHz, and broadcom makes a model that natively runs at 1GHz (dual core).

You can also get a readout of the clock speed by enabling telnet and then running the command
nvram get clkfreq

there is also a utility to enable telnet temporarily

http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/10602/NETGEAR-Telnet-Enable-Utility/

I don't think they will use a dual core 1GHz CPU, just to run it at 800MHz. That will be throwing away performance for no reason, especially since features like QOS, wifi, and USB storage are CPU intensive and can often get bottlenecked, especially on mixed loads (e.g., a large number of connections over wifi at a high throughput (if you want to test for your self, then in telnet run the top command then stress the router)

Netgear also included a VPN server, even a dual core 1GHz CPU may struggle with Multiple VPN users.

the manual is likely outdated (eg may have been in the works for some time, and someone mistakenly pushed out an old manual.

the manual also states that the router is a 300 + 1300 unit (while the router is clearly a 600+1300)

hopefully the team doing the review of the router, will run those commands to figure out the clock speed

and if possible also the cat /proc/cpuinfo command a couple of times during different loads (to see if the router lowers it's clock speed when idle)

 

[Sky1111]

They are advertising it as a dual core 1GHz, and broadcom makes a model that natively runs at 1GHz (dual core).

You can also get a readout of the clock speed by enabling telnet and then running the command
nvram get clkfreq

there is also a utility to enable telnet temporarily

http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/10602/NETGEAR-Telnet-Enable-Utility/

I don't think they will use a dual core 1GHz CPU, just to run it at 800MHz. That will be throwing away performance for no reason, especially since features like QOS, wifi, and USB storage are CPU intensive and can often get bottlenecked, especially on mixed loads (e.g., a large number of connections over wifi at a high throughput (if you want to test for your self, then in telnet run the top command then stress the router)

Netgear also included a VPN server, even a dual core 1GHz CPU may struggle with Multiple VPN users.

the manual is likely outdated (eg may have been in the works for some time, and someone mistakenly pushed out an old manual.

the manual also states that the router is a 300 + 1300 unit (while the router is clearly a 600+1300)

Both ASUS and Linksys use the same CPU clocked at 800MHz...
earlier I commented about thermal challenges running at 1GHz, but in reality Netgear is not so dumb to sell downclocked router to get sued for false advertizement

it if is passively cooled, then I would be concerned - it is designed to lay down on the surface, that means cooling is restricted from the get go. How do they keep it cool?

 

[PrivateJoker]

I am looking forward to see the pics of disassembled Netgear

Me too, I tried to get online on the FCC site and using the FCC ID # I saw on the bottom of a user purchased unit on these boards, but the FCC site is down for most functions during the g'ovt shutdown. Will have to wait until someone pops one open and shares or until the FCC site comes back and hopefully has internal pics.

Asus routers only report temps of the radios, correct? Is there a command line function one can do to query the CPU/SoC temp? Or are they all going to be quite close because they often share the same, large, physical heat sink?

I'm curious what physical/thermal connection there is between the chips & heat sink in these routers since the RF shields seem to be sandwiched in between the chips and heat sink, and at the most maybe a small thermal pad might be on one of the RF shields, but I don't recall ever seeing any thermal paste.

RT-AC56U internals
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...32120-inside-story-asus-rt-ac56u-and-rt-ac68u

RT-N66U internals
http://wl500g.info/album.php?albumid=28

it if is passively cooled, then I would be concerned - it is designed to lay down on the surface, that means cooling is restricted from the get go. How do they keep it cool?

First, (from the photos I've seen) the sides and rear of the R7000 are perforated for airflow. Just because these high clock rate multi core CPUs are powerful doesn't inherently mean they hang precariously between functioning well and melting on our desks. Similar ARM based chips are in tons of consumer & enterprise equipment and do things like HD video processing @ 1080p without needing active cooling. Every new generation of ARM chips touts its reduced power needs and higher processing power over the previous design.

That said, I'm also not one who overclocks or mega boosts the TX power in his router, nor do I hide it in a cabinet.

 

[Razor512]

The website http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wireless-LAN/802.11-Wireless-LAN-Solutions/BCM4707-4708-4709

"At the center of the device is a high-performance 1 GHz ARM® Cortex™-A9 dual-core with a 32 KB four-way set associative instruction cache, a 32 KB four-way set associative data cache, and a 128-entry translation lookaside buffer (TLB). Enhanced CPU memory subsystem architecture provides increased system performance. The device uses state-of-the-art 40 nm technology."

r7000 uses BCM4709A0KFEBG

 

[PrivateJoker]

The website http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wireless-LAN/802.11-Wireless-LAN-Solutions/BCM4707-4708-4709

"At the center of the device is a high-performance 1 GHz ARM® Cortex™-A9 dual-core with a 32 KB four-way set associative instruction cache, a 32 KB four-way set associative data cache, and a 128-entry translation lookaside buffer (TLB). Enhanced CPU memory subsystem architecture provides increased system performance. The device uses state-of-the-art 40 nm technology."

Right, but there isn't anything out there with an "ARM A9" chip. ARM is a "fabless" (ie they don't actually make or sell silicon) chipmaker (along with others like Marvell & Broadcom) that designs & licenses the heart of a SoC (system on chip, like a CPU w/ other core hardware features) then licenses it out to companies like Broadcom, Qualcomm, Apple, etc, to add their proprietary features (support for different interfaces, etc) and end up with unique chips that share some design basic heritage but can be customized to do very different things in different environments.

 

[Sky1111]

I cannot figure out what is the delta between 4708 and 4709. Does anyone know?

I am hoping that I will be able overclock R7000 beyond 1.2GHz - actively cooled of course

Missed this part in the article:
"According to Broadcom, the main difference between the two processors is that the 4709 has a 1 GHz clock speed per core, vs. 4708's 800 MHz. The 4709 also supports faster DDR3-1600 memory and has "some other I/O" differences."

Hmmm... I was able to achieve 1200e/800m on 4708 (AC56U), and 800 on memory really means DDR3-1600. I wonder for is the memory type/speed Netgear is using...

 

[Razor512]

I was also wondering from the images, it looks like the r7000 has solder pads for additional antennas. is is possible for that router to use 6 antennas, or is it designed to only share 3 antennas, or is it using any internal antenna?

Wouldn't it be better to have the wifi radios not share antennas?

 

[whsbuss]

I was also wondering from the images, it looks like the r7000 has solder pads for additional antennas. is is possible for that router to use 6 antennas, or is it designed to only share 3 antennas, or is it using any internal antenna?

Wouldn't it be better to have the wifi radios not share antennas?

I think I remember reading that it has 3 internal and 3 external antennas.

 

[whsbuss]

Time Machine

The marketing data says the R7000 supports Apple Time Machine. But in the manual it states this:

HFS+ Journal is read-only because this router does not support Time Machine. For more information about Time Machine, visit www.netgear.com/readyshare or see your Mac’s documentation.

So how is it possible?

 

[NetgearGuru]

The marketing data says the R7000 supports Apple Time Machine. But in the manual it states this:

HFS+ Journal is read-only because this router does not support Time Machine. For more information about Time Machine, visit www.netgear.com/readyshare or see your Mac’s documentation.

So how is it possible?

This was a mistake in the documentation and they are making the corrections and will repost. Also the R7000 does support Time Machine, but some issues were found with OS 10.8.x and Netgear engineering is currently working on it, and should have a fix soon.

 

[NetgearGuru]

From the manual for the r7000:

"The dual-core 800 MHz processor delivers high-performance connectivity, and the USB 3.0 port provides up to 10 times faster USB hard drive access". Or could be a typo...

The online manual was in error, and has already been updated to reflect that this should have read "...powered by a dual core 1 GHz processor."

 

[whsbuss]

The online manual was in error, and has already been updated to reflect that this should have read "...powered by a dual core 1 GHz processor."

And someone else mentioned that Netgear said time machine is supported (unlike what the manual says). However it won't work on OSX 10.7 or above.

 

[NetgearGuru]

Nighthawk and Time Machine compatibility

The Time Machine Support for R7000 currently has compatibility issues with MAC OS 10.8.x, which Netgear engineering is aware of and is working on. Currently it does works on MAC OS 10.7.x, and engineering should have a fix for 10.8.x in the near future.

 

[whsbuss]

The Time Machine Support for R7000 currently has compatibility issues with MAC OS 10.8.x, which Netgear engineering is aware of and is working on. Currently it does works on MAC OS 10.7.x, and engineering should have a fix for 10.8.x in the near future.

Well I would hope they also find out if their supposed fix will work on 10.9 Mavericks. Coming out next week.

 

[thiggins]

?.. engineering should have a fix for 10.8.x in the near future.

How do you know this? Are you a NETGEAR employee?

 

[PrivateJoker]

How do you know this? Are you a NETGEAR employee?

I hope not if they interchange Macs & MACs.

 

[Ziggy]

The Time Machine Support for R7000 currently has compatibility issues with MAC OS 10.8.x, which Netgear engineering is aware of and is working on. Currently it does works on MAC OS 10.7.x, and engineering should have a fix for 10.8.x in the near future.

That's great and appreciated, however, OS X Mavericks 10.9 is about to be released and I hope that NETGEAR software developers' have at least been part of Apple's developer program so that 10.9 is being addressed prior to Mavericks' release.

 

[whsbuss]

That's great and appreciated, however, OS X Mavericks 10.9 is about to be released and I hope that NETGEAR software developers' have at least been part of Apple's developer program so that 10.9 is being addressed prior to Mavericks' release.

If their track record is any indication, I doubt it.