Chip in Linksys WPC11

Does anyone know which versions, if any, of the Linksys WMP11 PCMCIA cards use a BCM4301 chip?

I need to acquire an 802.11b-only PC card with a BCM4301 for software development. I would
appreciate knowing the models and revisions of cards that use that chip.

Thanks,

Larry

Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net> hath wroth:

>Does anyone know which versions, if any, of the Linksys WMP11 PCMCIA cards use a BCM4301 chip?

The WPC11 and WMP11 have internal photos on the FCC ID web site. I'm
too lazy to lookup the FCC ID numbers. Bug me if you can't find them.
Both the WPC11 and WMP11 have used that chip, but I don't know which
hardware mutations. The FCC ID is different for these mutations, so a
quick look at the internal photos should tell all.

There are also lots of Linux distributions that list the cards and
what chips they use. See:
<http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=devices>

>I need to acquire an 802.11b-only PC card with a BCM4301 for software development. I would
>appreciate knowing the models and revisions of cards that use that chip.

Drivel: Petition with 16,000 signatures to get Broadcom to release
internal info on the BCM4301.
<http://www.petitiononline.com/BCM4301/>

Well, I tried the FCC ID search page for WMP11 and of course, it
doesn't find anything. I correctly guessed that the prefix is "PKW".
So, I used just "PKW" for the search key and got 70 hits. The WMP11
is listed twice:
<https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout =500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=102299&fcc_i d='PKW-WMP11'>
<https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout =500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=266751&fcc_i d='PKW-WMP11-V27'>

Bummer. The internal photos shows a MiniPCI card, with an unreadable
chip designation. The board says "Intersil" so I don't think it's a
Broadcom chipset.
<https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=168069&native_or_pdf=pd f>

The one labelled WMP11-V27 is a bit more helpful.
<https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=261783&native_or_pdf=pd f>
It clearly shows the Broadcom chipset BCM4307KPF, which methinks (not
sure) is a rather odd choice. It has an onboard V.92 modem and
ethernet interface. Weird. Incidentally, the RF chip appears to be a
BCM2051KML.

Methinks you can do the same for the WPC11.
<https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm>

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net> hath wroth:
>
>> Does anyone know which versions, if any, of the Linksys WMP11 PCMCIA cards use a BCM4301 chip?
>
> The WPC11 and WMP11 have internal photos on the FCC ID web site. I'm
> too lazy to lookup the FCC ID numbers. Bug me if you can't find them.
> Both the WPC11 and WMP11 have used that chip, but I don't know which
> hardware mutations. The FCC ID is different for these mutations, so a
> quick look at the internal photos should tell all.
>
> There are also lots of Linux distributions that list the cards and
> what chips they use. See:
> <http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=devices>
>
>> I need to acquire an 802.11b-only PC card with a BCM4301 for software development. I would
>> appreciate knowing the models and revisions of cards that use that chip.
>
> Drivel: Petition with 16,000 signatures to get Broadcom to release
> internal info on the BCM4301.
> <http://www.petitiononline.com/BCM4301/>

Our reverse-engineering process has done rather well. At present we are getting throughputs measured
with iperf that are up to 80% of what the Windows driver gets.

> Well, I tried the FCC ID search page for WMP11 and of course, it
> doesn't find anything. I correctly guessed that the prefix is "PKW".
> So, I used just "PKW" for the search key and got 70 hits. The WMP11
> is listed twice:
> <https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout =500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=102299&fcc_i d='PKW-WMP11'>
> <https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout =500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=266751&fcc_i d='PKW-WMP11-V27'>
>
> Bummer. The internal photos shows a MiniPCI card, with an unreadable
> chip designation. The board says "Intersil" so I don't think it's a
> Broadcom chipset.
> <https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=168069&native_or_pdf=pd f>
>
> The one labelled WMP11-V27 is a bit more helpful.
> <https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=261783&native_or_pdf=pd f>
> It clearly shows the Broadcom chipset BCM4307KPF, which methinks (not
> sure) is a rather odd choice. It has an onboard V.92 modem and
> ethernet interface. Weird. Incidentally, the RF chip appears to be a
> BCM2051KML.

That is the way Broadcom does things. My main laptop has a mini-PCIe card with a BCM4311 in it.
Included in the cores on the chip are the expected PCIe and 802.11 cores; however it also has a USB
1.1 host core. Why? Who knows?

> Methinks you can do the same for the WPC11.
> <https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm>

I found that the WPC11 V4 has a RTL8180 wireless chip, but there is no label on the wireless chip in
the WPC11 V3 photos. That may very well be a BCM4301.

Thanks for your help.

Larry

Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net> hath wroth:

>Our reverse-engineering process has done rather well. At present we are getting throughputs measured
>with iperf that are up to 80% of what the Windows driver gets.

Cool. I have some Broadcom based cards in laptops that I want to try
on Linux.

>That is the way Broadcom does things. My main laptop has a mini-PCIe card with a BCM4311 in it.
>Included in the cores on the chip are the expected PCIe and 802.11 cores; however it also has a USB
>1.1 host core. Why? Who knows?

Can I guess? Methinks it's to reduce the number of different chips
that have to be inventoried. The idea is to use the same chip for all
the manufacturers products (USB, PCI, PCMCIA, router, etc).

>> Methinks you can do the same for the WPC11.
>> <https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm>
>
>I found that the WPC11 V4 has a RTL8180 wireless chip, but there is no label on the wireless chip in
>the WPC11 V3 photos. That may very well be a BCM4301.

For v4.0, it's a Maxim MAX2820.

WPC11 v2.9
<https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=281815&native_or_pdf=pd f>
Looks like Intersil Prism ISL37305P reference design. Photo shows
blurry a ISL387381A MAC chip.

WPC11 v3.0
<https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=224096&native_or_pdf=pd f>
Chips are unreadable.

WPC11 v3.1
<https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=259195&native_or_pdf=pd f>
Chips are unreadable.

WPC11 v4.0
<https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=309492&native_or_pdf=pd f>
RTL8180L MAC chip. RF chip is Maxim MAX2820.

I may have missed some because I was yacking on the phone and radio at
the same time as I was trying to decode the chips.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net> hath wroth:
>
>> Our reverse-engineering process has done rather well. At present we are getting throughputs measured
>> with iperf that are up to 80% of what the Windows driver gets.
>
> Cool. I have some Broadcom based cards in laptops that I want to try
> on Linux.

When you make the try, use kernel 2.6.21-rc5 (or later), otherwise get the latest 2.6.20.y and get
the combined_2.6.20.y.patch from ftp://lwfinger.dynalias.org/patches. The stock kernels older than
2.6.20, which will include the kernels found in most distros, are really out of date; however, once
a kernel reaches the -rc stage, only bug fixes are allowed into the official distribution.

Larry