[Fwd: Xo 1.5 wlan]

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 16:09, Tiago Marques <tiagomnm at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/31/09, John Watlington <wad at laptop.org> wrote:
>>
>> On May 30, 2009, at 12:04 PM, Reinder E.N. de Haan wrote:
>>
>>> Subject: Xo 1.5 wlan
>>> Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 19:56:27 +0200
>>> From: Reinder de Haan <rs at mveas.com>
>>> To: John Watlington <wad at laptop.org>
>>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I have a couple of questions regarding the wlan module in xo 1.5;
>>>
>>> 1) will it be an off the shelf module (3th party) or a quanta/olpc
>>> 'private' module
>>
>> One of the complications of the Gen 1.5 design has been improving
>> the WLAN module.   The existing module takes lots of power, and
>> the USB driver still needs extensive modification to speed up
>> suspend/resume.
>>
>
> Being power the major concern, will wireless range also be enhanced in
> some way? Most of the early claims that the XO had a top class
> wireless range have not materialized, at least when I compare it to
> other devices like a Fon2100 or an IPW2200 from Intel, which is
> probably the device with best wireless range that I've ever seen.
>
> A way to change the transmit power in software would be great for
> power and range, depending on the application. Does the module have
> anything like that or are you just mainly focusing on power and
> relegating range to 2nd place?

I think that there have been recent improvements in the algorithm for
choosing the transmission power in the linux kernel. I'm not sure if
all wifi drivers benefit from it, but a laptop with b43 has improved
dramatically its range after updating to Ubuntu Jaunty.

Regards,

Tomeu

> Best regards,
>
> Tiago Marques
>
>> Unlike Gen 1, we don't have the time or expected market to
>> develop and certify a custom module.
>>
>> The current plan is to use an existing WLAN module, based on
>> the Marvell 88W8686 and connected to the system using an
>> SDIO interface.
>>
>>> 2) if it is a private module please break out jtag and the serial port
>>> for debugging (xo 1.0 only had jtag.. serial ended right at the
>>> balls of
>>> the chip :-(
>>
>> Sorry, the module doesn't bring any of the internal debugging signal
>> out.
>>
>>> 3a) if its a 3th party moduel is it posible to buy it somewhere ?
>>
>> Yes and no.   There are 88W8686-based SDIO modules already
>> available, and electrically/software-wise they will be identical to the
>> one we are planning to use.
>>
>> The actual module used in XO-1.5 will have a half-height miniPCI-e
>> form factor.   Even if you could buy it in small quantities, you
>> would have
>> to arrange an adapter board to use internally.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> wad
>>
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