Router SoC 101

By Gene Fabron
published

Do you ever wonder what goes on inside a router? In this article, we take a close look at the SoCs inside of them, which help us manage and maintain our connected lives.

Chipsets

Chipsets

The landscape of networking device manufacturers has changed drastically within the past five years. The big names—Ralink, Ubicom, Atheros—are gone, absorbed by bigger companies. The ground is now held by two giants: Broadcom and Qualcomm. A relative newcomer to the field, MediaTek, is holding its own through the strength of acquisitions. Smaller manufacturers like Marvell and Quantenna have also introduced SoCs used in many mid- and high-end routers, while the networking division of RealTek supplies D-Link and Huawei with chips.

D-Link DI-524 Mainboard, Image by Niels Heidenreich

In 2015, there were some new technologies that affected the giant-dominated line-up, including 5G Wi-Fi Wave 2, 4x4 and 8x8 MU-MIMO. All of the players have exciting offerings, and some of the smaller companies (Quantenna, specifically, with its 10G SoCs) had a lead on Broadcom and Qualcomm at CES 2015.

Gene Fabron
Gene Fabron is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes reference material across a range of components.
15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • letapragas
    Awesome job!
    Reply
  • zodiacfml
    Intel do use one of their chips for a similar device.
    Reply
  • QuangT
    Nice article, is there any more on how tech works? Like cpu and gpu?
    Reply
  • bwhiten
    Uhhhh...Those first pictures are not "schematics". They are CAD renderings of the box and main board at best, but definitely not schematics.
    Reply
  • EdJulio
    Uhhhh...Those first pictures are not "schematics". They are CAD renderings of the box and main board at best, but definitely not schematics.

    Thanks, bwhiten. Updated the caption...
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Nice article!

    Small, irrelevant fact: MIPS was once owned by SGI and used in their servers and workstations. They even used a MIPS CPU in the N64, which they designed for Nintendo. In fact, that was largely the outcome of a previous (if not the first) wave of VR hype. But, I digress...

    Also, most people consider ARM to be RISC. Or, at least as much as anything is, these days. Indeed, the name once stood for Advanced RISC Machines.

    But I didn't know what MIPS originally stood for, so thanks for that. I wonder whether or how long that remained true of their architectures.
    Reply
  • EdJulio
    17548227 said:
    Nice article!

    Small, irrelevant fact: MIPS was once owned by SGI and used in their servers and workstations. They even used a MIPS CPU in the N64, which they designed for Nintendo. In fact, that was largely the outcome of a previous (if not the first) wave of VR hype. But, I digress...

    Also, most people consider ARM to be RISC. Or, at least as much as anything is, these days.

    Thanks! I'll share this with Gene! Cheers!!!
    Reply
  • bit_user
    17548234 said:
    Thanks! I'll share this with Gene! Cheers!!!
    Thanks, but I did say it was irrelevant. It really has no bearing on the routers using these chips.
    Reply
  • GeneFabron
    Nice article, is there any more on how tech works? Like cpu and gpu?

    Hi QuangT, we have a Wireless Routers 101 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wireless-routers-101,4456.html and a PSUs 101 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supplies-101,4193.html article, and there will be more coming soon!
    Reply
  • Gabriel_1965
    Question: I've seen a router with 72 cores would that be made to be a 72 core pic and I could use the cores for multi ore computing?
    Reply