- Maybe you missed it? Review of the Banana Pi BPI-R4 Lite.
- Banana Pi BPI-R4 Pro Overview: A brief overview of the anticipated key features.
Introducing the advanced Banana Pi BPI-R4 Pro Router
Following the successful launch of the R4 router and the SB series, the Banana Pi Team is now launching their new enhanced and more advanced edition. The new model, tentatively named the BPI-R4 Pro, is built on the MediaTek MT7988A (Filogic 880) SoC, promising good performance and features. In an effort to foster community involvement and ensure the product meets user needs, the company has proactively shared some design suggestions and is actively seeking feedback from its user community. This collaborative approach highlights Banana Pi’s commitment to innovation and responsiveness in their product development process.
Banana Pi BPI R4 Pro (3D Cad Models)
Key Features
- MediaTek MT7988A Quad-core Arm Cortex-A73,1.8GHz processor
- 4GB/8GB DDR4
- 8GB eMMC flash
- 256MB SPI-NAND Flash
- Micro SD card slot
- 1x 10G SFP WAN
- 1x 10G SFP LAN
- 1x 2.5G RJ45 WAN (Optional with 1x 10G SFP WAN, supports PoE with PoE module soldered)
- 5x 2.5G RJ45 LAN
- 1x 1G RJ45 LAN
- 2x 1G LAN (FPC Connector)
- 2x miniPCIe slots with PCIe3.0 2lane interface for Wi-Fi 7 NIC
- 2x M.2 M-KEY slots with PCIe3.0 1lane interface for NVME SSD (PCIe can switch to M.2 B-KEY slot)
- 3x M.2 B-KEY slots with USB3.2 for 5G Module
- 1x USB 3.2 slot
- 1x USB 2.0 slot
- 2x 13-PIN Header for expanding applications
- 1x USB Type-C Debug Console
Detailed Overview of the Board Interfaces
Equipped with the MediaTek Filogic 880 SoC
The MediaTek Filogic 880 platform stands out for its scalability and boasts a range of high-speed internal and external interfaces, including 10Gbps PCI-Express, 5Gbps USB, UART, SD, SPI, PWM, GPIO, and OTP. This diversity provides developers with a wealth of opportunities for customization.
The hardware delivers a dependable network experience for both wired and wireless applications, featuring an array of connectivity options: four Gigabit Ethernet ports, two UNXGMII interfaces, four PCIe ports, and two USB 3.2 ports. The MT7988A is engineered to facilitate Wi-Fi 7 tri-band connectivity across 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands. It also includes a companion chip that supports an impressive 320 MHz bandwidth, 4096-QAM, MLO, MRU, and AFC capabilities.
Computing power
Equipped with a robust Quad-Core CPU and a MediaTek Network Processor (NPU), the Filogic 880 boasts a powerful quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 processor with a substantial internal cache and clock speeds reaching 1.8GHz. This results in exceptional performance, achieving nearly 30K DMIPS. By leveraging the NPU to handle network-related tasks, device manufacturers are empowered to utilize CPE at no cost, enabling them to personalize operating systems, incorporate built-in services, and develop applications that expand the functionalities typically found in top-tier router and access point devices.
NPU
MediaTek-designed on-chip network processing unit (NPU) provides hardware QoS acceleration and tunnel offload engines for VLAN / PPTP / L2TP / GRE. It goes above and beyond in that it can use both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections, ensure full-speed performance while offload the main application processor.
Equipped with Tunnel Offloading Processor System (TOPS)
In order to meet the needs of rapidly evolving tunneling applications, MT7988A is equipped with the MediaTek Tunnel Offloading Processor System (TOPS), which helps to handle various tunneling protocols. MT7988A is committed to taking network transmission performance to an advanced level by optimizing network performance with fine-tuned MediaTek TOPS ISA.
Enhanced connectivity with WiFi 7 support
The hardware delivers a dependable network experience for both wired and wireless applications, featuring an array of connectivity options: four Gigabit Ethernet ports, two UNXGMII interfaces, four PCIe ports, and two USB 3.2 ports. The MT7988A is engineered to facilitate Wi-Fi 7 tri-band connectivity across 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands. It also includes a companion chip that supports an impressive 320 MHz bandwidth, 4096-QAM, MLO, MRU, and AFC capabilities.
Key interfaces
The CAD design images shared on the Banana Pi Forum reveal a highly promising concept featuring two M.2 Key-B slots for NVMe SSDs. The device boasts five 2.5GbE ports alongside one 1GbE RJ45 Ethernet port and two SFP+ cages, offering the flexibility to connect either an RJ45 Ethernet copper module or a fiber optic module, making it ideal for fiber internet infrastructures. While this design may still evolve, the core concept is distinctly clear. Additionally, akin to the previous R4 board series, there are two mPCIe slots available for integrating a Wi-Fi network interface card (NIC) and one USB host port.
Typical Applications
- Internet service routers
- Wifi 7 wireless router
- 4G/5G wireless router
- Wireless/wired relay communication gateway
- Home Security Gateway
- Smart home control gateway
- NAS gateway
- Network communication applications
- Industrial control and integrated communication applications
About Banana Pi
Banana Pi is a brand of open-source single-board computers (SBCs) and hardware, made by Shenzhen SINOVOIP Company. Often compared to Raspberry Pi, they focus on providing versatile, open hardware for developers and hobbyists.
Their products include:
- SBCs: Various models with different processors (ARM, RISC-V) and features.
- Smart Routers: Like the BPI-R4 Pro, featuring Wi-Fi 6/7, 10GbE, and OpenWrt support.
- AI & IoT Boards: Designed for specialized applications.
They support diverse operating systems (Linux, Android) and also offer OEM/ODM services for custom solutions.
Banana Pi BPI-R4 Pro Price and Availability
The product is currently in the final development stages, and its status remains unknown. We will update this article as soon as we receive any fresh and important news to share.
