The WRT54G2

After eight or so product generations, Linksys is phasing out its mainstay WRT54G wireless router. The practical, stackable, flashable, blue box that is Linksys' #1 selling product is getting a new look.

The WRT54G2, which is in in stores now, comes in the black Sting Ray / UFO package with internal antennas that first appeared in the WRT160N and WRT310N Draft 802.11n routers introduced at this year's Consumer Electronics show.

Figure 1: Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router

Figure 2 shows that the design is still Broadcom-based, using a BCM5354 802.11b/g Router System-on-Chip with BroadRange Technology.

Figure 2: WRT54G2 inside view

The BCM5354 has a 240-MHz MIPS32 CPU core and also incorporates an 802.11 b/g MAC/PHY, 2.4-GHz direct conversion radio, USB 2.0 host controller, SDRAM controller, and a configurable five-port 10/100 switch. The FCC photos aren't clear enough to determine the RAM and flash sizes, but various sources say they are 8 MB and 2 MB respectively.

The design is interesting because only one of the antennas is routed through a SiGe SE2528L 2.4 GHz power amplifier that sits under the RF shield.

While the external packaging is different, the design really isn't. Figure 3, taken from the FCC documentation, shows the WRT54GV82 board. This is the most recent version of the WRT54G, which was submitted to the FCC in November 2007.

Figure 3: Linksys WRT54GV82 board

The board form-factor is different, but the design also uses the BCM5354 and even has the same one-antenna-through-a-power-amp design as the WRT54G2. A similar BCM5354-based design is also found in the WRT54GV8, which was submitted to the FCC in January 2007.

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