This bullshit is going to be continued with the Asus AC87U. The quantenna radios load a binary image from flash with a mini linux that holds the logic. So again no chance to debug/fix bugs in the wireless part and massive complexity for radio communication with the webif.
But that's only "part" of the radio config, the entire config isn't quantenna is it?
Yes, only the radio. It is like a black box. The radio is like an embedded system with its own linux. Think of it like another computer inside the router. When you power on the router, then the embedded radio will also boot up its own linux.
Communication is done via rpc calls, just like a communication between to remote PCs on your lan.
Such a design has a whole lot of disadvantages, but it is perfect to do information hiding aka protect IP (intellectual property), just like Marvell.
As it also uses no linux standard wireless mechanism it needs lots of work to implement this, as BS was paid to do this the AC87U will be supported, we will see how long it takes Quantenna to get this stable and dd-wrt has no influence on this, it can just update the quantenna mini linux and hope that it works:-)
I find the wording of that "announcement" to be quite interesting. It's a Belkin employee saying "We received the official open source wireless driver". To me this implies that this is a different driver than what is used in their released products (since obviously Belkin already had the regular source code - they even accidentally included it in a GPL release a few months ago). Wouldn't surprise me if it was a more generic (without any proprietary performance enhancements which they wish to keep closed source) release.
The radio is like an embedded system with its own linux. Think of it like another computer inside the router. When you power on the router, then the embedded radio will also boot up its own linux.
Communication is done via rpc calls, just like a communication between to remote PCs on your lan.
Wow, that sounds a bit scary, as there potentially can be numerous backdoors implemented by purpose, and we saw something similar already. Is such an embedded design with linux for radio commonly used for all modern routers and smartphones? Are there at all routers on the market with open-source code available for the radio among top models (such as Linksys EA6900, Netgear R7000, Asus RT-AC68U, etc.)?
Thanks, very interesting indeed. However, since it is a non-commercial research project, one cannot really expect that new technologies (such as .11ac) will be implemented quickly. That hinders acceptance.
Man you guys still kicking this thing around? People just need to feeding into Linksys and just let them go on and DIE just as they've been destined to do for several years now. We're on like the 3rd company and they still can't get it right!
I think Belkin could have really made a nice come back with this unit. When I saw it sitting on the shelf at Best Buy as I was browsing around, I immediately got nostalgic and bought it just cause. Got home, unwrapped it and was very impressed with the physical aspects of the unit. Then I jumped online online and started looking for WRT support (something I would normally do BEFORE I buy a router :facepalm:) and soon realized the WRT1900AC is a waste of time. Marvell chip FTF, and Belkin is playing games with the drivers! I took it back to the store for a refund the next day!
Oh well I guess maybe the next company that decides to buys Linksys can try again.
There's been LOTS of criticism/vitriol towards them over the last ~4mth, so hopefully they've learnt a thing or 2 throughout the entire process.
We don't want the market to degenerate to "the big 2/3" (sure there's many other players, but really there's only 3-4 major players), having at least 3 major players is good for all of us.
Oh I agree 100%! Better to have several options than just one or two. I just can't believe how much "Linksys" keeps dropping the ball every time they develop a new product! It's like how do you go from being way up on the top of the list to way down on the bottom of the list? And then continue to screw up a keep burning and chance you might of had at moving back up the list. It's ridiculous!
Reminds me of crApple. They were in the gutter for YEARS! Then the iPod and iPhone came along and put them back in the game. Now it seems like all they know how to do is recycle and resize their old products over and over and over again
Kong I like your hit on the R7000. Been checking this one out and I go to the negative reviews first and work my way up, often getting more accurate information that way than from folks whose only adjective is awesome; this model does seem plagued with dependability issues.
One of the reviewers did say "DD-WRT K3 custom firmware solves the router problems."
Has this been the case with you? Perhaps not that particular firmware--but has dd-wrt made this router dependable?
