SmallNetBuilder

Internal Details

Figures 3 and 4 show the innards of the AP 200. You don't see a processor because it's part of the Atheros single-chip 2.4 GHz AP device located under the soldered-on RF shield. The FCC internal photo was no help either, being too fuzzy to determine the specific Atheros device.

The LED signal-bar display is on the small board you see mounted to the underside of the top cover. It connects to a 10 pin header on the main board via the flat cable that was disconnected for the photo.

Figure 3: Inside view

The other devices that you can see are a Realtek RTL8201 single-chip 10/100 Ethernet interface, 32 MB RAM chip and Spansion FL064A Serial interface chip.

Figure 4: Main board

And yes, that's right, the AP 200 performs all of its tricks with a single radio chip. So since the radio is doing double duty as a Wi-FI WAN client and WLAN router, you'll lose about half the wireless WAN throughput. You'll see what this means later in the Performance section.